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Seven Professions2zici. se 


and the 


Teachings of Jesus 


BY 


Marruew Hate’WILson 


BENJAMIN 8S. BROWN DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY 
AT 
Park COLLEGE 
AND 
MINISTER AT 
PARKVILLE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 


PHILADELPHIA 
THE WESTMINSTER PRESS 
1925 


CopynricHt, 1925 
BY 


Matrunew Hate WiLson 


Printed in the United States of America 


DEDICATED 
TO 
CORA LOUISE WILSON 


Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2022 with funding from 
Princeton Theological Seminary Library 


https://archive.org/details/sevenprofessionsOOwils 


PREFACE 


N every well-established business and profes- 
sion there is a consensus of spiritual convic- 
tion, either latent or defined, which is the pro- 
duct of strenuous efforts in repeated trials to 
determine that which is Christian in conduct. 
An appreciation of the Christianity developed 
by experience is needed by all who seek for them- 
selves the highest type of Christian life. In each 
profession there is a continuity of spiritual life 
which should be understood and sympathetically 
appreciated that the working of God may be 
really and not artificially known; and that those 
who are engaged in these specific tasks may have 
that definite guidance without which they might 
fail of eminent success in their Christian experi- 
ence. A study of vital Christianity as it is modi- 
fied by the diverse activities of men gives a saner 
appreciation of what God has already wrought. 
It aids the believer in promoting the spiritual 
life of others in definite, wholesome, and con- 
_ structive ways, as well as in extending his own 
horizon and enriching his personal life. 
Men in the different walks of life should create 
a higher type of professional and business life not 
maw 


6 PREFACE 


only by the observance of those Christian ideals 
which may be known but also by the develop- 
ment of those ideals which lie dormant in their 
respective callings. For the professions, a millen- 
nium would have come if Christian men had 
maintained a strict professional integrity accord- 
ing to the light which they now possess and the 
ideals which are being formulated by conscien- 
tious Christian professional men. To live in 
accordance with such ideals is to create a better 
world. It is to be practical in the religious life; 
it is to work within the boundary of the possible 
in achievement and at the same time to realize 
that one may contribute to the enlargement of 
ideals. | 

The next step in religion is to determine what 
the teaching of Jesus may mean in connection 
with the concrete situations which arise in the 
professions. The investigation is undertaken in 
this book because many men are asking in what 
definite ways Jesus may aid them in their chosen . 
work. 

The material for this manuscript has been 
gathered not only from printed sources but also 
from a correspondence which has become national 
in scope, extending over the last fifteen years. 
In addition, many conferences with leaders in 


PREFACE 7 


the professions have made possible an apprecia- 
tion of the tasks which confront them and the 
manner in which they have blended the teaching 
of Jesus with their training in solving these prob- 
lems. Those eminent in achievement have tried 
to keep me true to fact by letters or by penciling 
in the margin of the preliminary pages those 
corrections which their experience has caused 
them to feel should be embodied in a balanced 
statement. So many have made suggestions that 
it would not be possible to acknowledge their 
service by naming them. I have such regard for 
the confidence given to me that I would rather 
err on the side of silence than commit any con- 
tributors even indirectly by connecting them 
with the chapters as written. Still, | should be 
recreant if [ did not mention the helpfulness of 
Shailer Mathews and Ernest De Witt Burton. 
The most satisfying part of this work has been 
to discover the intelligent and sympathetic 
understanding of Jesus held by the builders of 
the society of our day. 

The material is arranged in the following 
chapters in the order in which the problems arise 
in the professions. The chapters can scarcely be 
taken separately as complete. The same topic 
which may be common to all may be stressed in 


8 PREFACE 


one chapter and neglected in others. However, 
the book as a whole attempts to present a bal- 
anced conception of the actual and possible 
relations between the problems in the profes- 
sions and the teaching of Jesus. 


Preface ..... 


Chapter I 
Chapter II 
Chapter III 
Chapter IV 
Chapter V 
Chapter VI 
Chapter VII 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 
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The Christian Physician............. ll 
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HOR ECreVINATIN a point ee uct thal. 85 
The:Ghristian: banker™: 231. ecAl 121 
PhenGhristtansditors ates sec ek tn : 156 
The Christian Deacher 25 0. 4s.. - 182 
The New: Profession®. 40sec ehh. 223 





CHAPTER I 


THE CHRISTIAN PHYSICIAN 
I 


HE achievement and exercise of manhood 

is the primary obligation of any man. The 
medical profession offers full scope for the un- 
ostentatious development of character. The full 
meaning of manhood in its inner poise and 
security, freed from ignorance, provincialism, 
arrogance, greed, and lust is exemplified in Jesus. 
He left a pattern of what it means to have seen 
life sanely, attractively, and as a whole. 

In the growth of the life of the world, great 
truths have been emphasized at various times. 
In the Greek states, it was the winning of intel- 
lectual freedom. In the Roman state, it was the 
worth of excellent civil laws. Later the dogmas 
and the defenses of Christianity were perfected. 
The modern age has gained the right of scientific 
inquiry, secured religious toleration, and estab- 
lished democracy. 

This age feels the dependence of the parts of 
the world on one another. The evolutionary 
conception, which has made this clear to all, had 
its roots in the physical and the biological 

il 


12 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 





sciences and it demonstrated, the unity of the 
natural world. A reinterpretation of the norma- 
tive sciences, such as ethics, sociology, esthetics, 
and philosophy was then made possible. No 
physical or biological fact can be what it is apart 
from the rest of the physical world. It is equally 
true that man is almost totally dependent on his 
fellows for his social life, and no value of human 
life can be attained alone and apart from other 
men. The facts of human life are just as inti- 
mately and delicately related as are those of the 
physical world, and even more so. In no other 
age has this great truth of the oneness of hu- 
manity been taken into account in such a serious 
way. It is modifying all our thoughts and all our 
practice. We know now that poverty is a con- 
cern of the rich as well as of the poor, that the 
educated cannot neglect the ignorant, that the 
moral must take note of the immoral. The old 
provincial and sectional differences are giving 
way to the conviction that fundamentally we are 
one people, that the misery of any class affects 
the welfare of all the people, and that the success 
of any group aids the well-being of society as a 
whole. The unity of the race is becoming a 
working hypothesis for moral living. It was 
difficult for the men of Jesus’ day to understand 


THE CHRISTIAN PHYSICIAN 13 


him. The same antipathy existed between the 
Jew and the Samaritan that now separates 
the Turk from the Armenian, or the Negro from 
the white. Yet when Jesus gave the narrow and 
bigoted circle in which he lived an illustration in 
true brotherliness, he called attention to the 
kind deed and spirit of a Samaritan. The 
greatest faith he discovered was in a Roman, and 
one of his most disconcerting rebukes was that 
harlots and publicans, rather than the members 
of a supposedly religious coterie, should enjoy 
the bliss of the Kingdom. 

Jesus had a universal spirit. To his disciples 
he said in substance: “If you clothe the naked, 
visit the imprisoned, care for the sick, and feed 
the hungry, it is a service to me. In serving my 
brothers you have cared for me. We are one 
family, and any service of love done to one is 
done to all; every worthy act strengthens the 
whole realm of virtues.” Just as Jesus thought 
in terms of one humanity, a world service and a 
world redemption, the true physician knows no 
boundary of rich or poor, educated or unedu- 
cated, black or white. His work tends to create 
in him a spirit of helpfulness toward all. Through 
his work he comes to possess a regard for hu- 
manity, as such, whenever it is in need, and he 


14 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 





is in no sense the property of a clique or sect. 
In every medical laboratory where they are 
searching for the remedies for disease, once the 
methods of cure are ascertained, the artificial 
barriers of color, class, and culture are disre- 
garded. The serious work of the physician leads 
him naturally to a conception that we are of the 
same flesh and blood. 

How natural to the physician, then, that one 
of the favorite figures of Paul should be that we 
are all related as members of a body of which 
Christ is the head! The eye cannot say to the 
ear that it has no need of it. If one organ suffers, 
then the whole body suffers, and the health of 
each organ helps the whole body as general 
bodily health aids each part. The physician can 
realize the full force of the unity of life as de- 
picted by Paul when he compared men in their 
various gifts, sin, health, suffering, and helpful- 
ness, to the various parts of the body of which 
Christ is the head. The parts of the body are so 
intimately related by means of the nervous and 
circulatory systems that it is impossible to suffer 
in one part without its affecting the rest of the 
body. Paul’s conviction of the unity of believers 
was strikingly illustrated by the interdependence 
of the parts of the body. For the physician, this 


THE CHRISTIAN PHYSICIAN 15 


generalization that the parts of the body 
mutually depend upon one another has been 
supported by innumerable instances until for 
him it has become a matter of fact. 


Il 


The average physician has entered the prac- 
tice of medicine with a sincere desire to aid his 
fellow men in their very apparent needs. It is 
so obvious that his is a necessary and humani- 
tarian service that no defense is needed, and, in 
all probability, he will be reticent in mentioning 
any good that he may do. He may have no very 
elaborate philosophy of life, but his work so 
lends itself to the service of others that he feels 
his is a calling permeated by fine ideals. For the 
physician, this is probably the most satisfying 
thing about his work: that by its very nature it 
holds him steadily in the path of helpfulness to 
those who are in great need of his service. 

Inside the circle of medicine are those who 
have ever remembered that their calling has a 
noble ancestry of gentlemen, that it has won 
emancipation from priestcraft, that it is based 
upon sciences, that it is progressive in character, 
and that its outlook has never been brighter than 
at the present hour. The members of this inner 


16 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


circle, known to physicians themselves, ex- 
emplify in their lives the finest Christian ideals. 
To them their colleagues look for guidance, from 
them they draw their inspiration, and through 
their faithfulness others win a like manhood for 
themselves. These are the men who know that 
even a little humbug is not a necessity, no matter 
how effective it may be with the general public. 
They are clean of body, mind, and speech. They 
are courteous without servility, reserved without 
cowardice, dignified but tender-hearted. 


{il 


There is a widely prevalent conception that 
all disease is caused by sin. The physician knows 
that this is not true. Only by the wildest stretch 
of the imagination can all disease be thought to 
be the result of sin. The germs which cause 
disease are a part of that total external environ- 
ment necessary for the development of the indi- 
vidual. They are there as are also air and food 
and water. Moreover, people have all kinds of 
constitutions with varying degrees of suscepti- 
bility to disease. Some are strong and remain 
healthy, while others are weak and open to the 
attacks of many forms of disease. For any one 
of many perfectly natural causes a person may 


THE CHRISTIAN PHYSICIAN 17 


become ill. In the main, the scientist has come 
to think of disease as a part of the process of 
nature apart from any moral issue whatever. 

They brought a man born blind to Christ and 
asked him a direct question as to whether the 
man himself or his parents had sinned that he 
should be in such a condition. His reply was 
that none of them had necessarily or especially 
sinned. ‘To him the situation was important 
because it offered an opportunity to help one 
who was in great need. 

It is not a matter purely of chemical or physi- 
cal law when the scientist discovers a cure for 
disease. On that border line where science 
erows, religion also may take a step forward. 
It is just here that he may meet the living 
God. Where the inquiring, struggling, creative 
interest of man is eager to enter into a new realm 
of law, there on the threshold of that discovery 
which opens a new world, he needs to personalize 
his experience in terms of God. Convictions con- 
cerning God do not grow in vacuums or in broad 
generalizations. The latter always lack the force 
of reality. God may become real for scientists 
just where their discoveries take the form of cer- 
tainties in the concrete experiences of life. ‘Thus 
the immanent God becomes better and better 


18 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 





known as the discoveries of man widen the 
horizon of his experience and knowledge. 
Nevertheless, it is also true that men con- 
sciously do those things which they know to be 
wrong and thus make themselves more liable to 
contract disease. When such is the case the 
issue becomes sharply ethical. When sin be- 
comes the occasion of disease, the general teach- 
ing of Jesus concerning sin is applicable. The 
physician has as much knowledge of the strength 
of sin as any other professional man in society, 
because the soul and the body are so intimately 
related that the evils of the soul are registered in 
the body. He daily observes the results of the 
sins of the parents which have been transmitted 
to their children. He sees the innocent suffer 
with the guilty. He treats diseases which have 
been willfully contracted. He watches a multi- 
tude serve lust with greediness and reap a harvest 
of weakness, pain, and death. The glutton is 
ever at hand; the sexually perverted are ever 
with him; the money-mad grow old before their 
time; and the careless and thoughtless suffer for 
their negligence. Such sin has marred man, it 
has caused his steps to falter, it has bowed his 
head, distorted his features, and marred his face 
with lines of vice; it has palsied his hands, bleared 


THE CHRISTIAN PHYSICIAN 19 


his eyes, and caused him to leer in lust; and it 
has brought him from life to death through pain 
and anguish. The physician carries on his heart 
continually the burden of many of the deliberate 
sins of his fellows, and as it is his business to 
treat human ills, he is convinced of the willful 
sinfulness of some as few others in the com- 
munity can be. 

Christ felt keenly the deliberate sin of the 
world. No other ever appreciated in just the 
same way the terrible consequences of such sin. 
He saw it as destroying all worthy relations of 
home and Church and State, and finally, after 
having separated the soul from God and all 
right-minded men, as forever plunging it into 
eternal misery and woe. He saw it as working 
ruin in the whole man until his end was a total 
loss of manhood. He saw it as polluting every 
human relation and filling the world with suffer- 
ing, disaster, and defeat. He realized how 
strongly it was intrenched in the habits and 
customs of men. How great must be the struggle 
of the soul to escape this undertow of conven- 
tionality that would ultimately ruin it forever! 
He had full knowledge of the fact of sin and of the 
results which accompanied it. For him, it was to 
be hated, fought, and rooted out of the world. 


20 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 





Once the issue is clarified by an appreciation 
of these two facts, that as far as we can discern 
sin need not be the cause of disease, and also that 
sin may create conditions where disease develops 
rapidly, then the conclusion can be reached 
easily that, in cases of those diseases for which 
the individual is not responsible, the cure waits 
on the progress of science. For the diseases 
caused by willful wrongdoing, even science can 
offer no permanent cure until there is a strong 
desire to do right. Just here the need of a 
worthy character makes itself felt, and the use- 
fulness of a religion which promotes moral 
integrity becomes apparent. 

The physician stands in need of the mind of 
Christ that he may not become gloomy, pessi- 
mistic, or fatalistic, believing that moral condi- 
tions cannot be readjusted. He must ask him- 
self if there is a way by which the tidal waves 
of deliberate sin may be stayed. He realizes that 
it is out of the heart that sin springs; that lust 
and malice and false pride are in the spirit of 
men; that uncleanliness of mind cannot be cured 
by repairing the body; that the great and funda- 
mental causes of sin lie in ignorance, passion, 
lust, and perversion of the soul. He is forced by 
his profession to ponder the deeper things of 


THE CHRISTIAN PHYSICIAN 21 





man’s spirit, and to ask, “Is there hope for the 
soul that is sick unto death?” If the answer 
which he makes to himself is that there is no 
practical escape from domination by evil forces, 
motives, and purposes, he will become falsely 
optimistic, suffer in dumb silence, or adopt a 
cynical though perhaps a kindly attitude toward 
life. If he is to be sane and balanced in his life, 
he needs the viewpoint of Christ with regard to 
willful sin: not only that it is terrible, working 
death in the moral life, but also that sin may be 
overcome and left behind; that all may be saved 
from it, although here the consequences may 
still remain in the body. If he is to look on the 
world with hope, he needs the compassion of 
Christ towards sinful man and that true op- 
timism which Jesus possessed because of his 
conviction that in the sincere and habitual con- 
fession of sin and repentance for it there is cleans- 
ing from the desire to do those things which are 
evil, deliverance from habits which ensnare and 
fetter, and the possibility of a positive, free life 
of love, service, and sacrifice as a member of his 
spiritual fraternity. The name of Jesus should 
be very precious to the physician, meaning, as 
it does, that he should “save his people from 
their sins.” The work of the physician forces 


22 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


him to recognize the power of sin, and brings him 
to the place where he can realize, as few others 
can, our need of a Saviour, and the wonder of 
the salvation wrought in our behalf by Jesus 
Christ. 

The Christian physician may have an op- 
timism in harmony with a victorious life. It need 
not be a false confidence. It can recognize the 
hard and bitter facts of life and is not obliged 
to underestimate their extent or their power; but 
it has witnessed lives made pure and strong and 
kept wholesome through trust in the Master and 
service for him. He knows that in spite of the 
disasters of life there is deliverance for those who 
put themselves in Christ’s way. As a result, the 
Christian physician may have a genuine, sane, 
and fruitful optimism in place of despair and 
kindly cynicism. 

Christ bore with the frailties of others. He had 
such hope on their behalf and such love for men 
that he was not turned from them because of 
their weakness. He had love, compassion, and 
forgiveness for those who were classed by society 
as sinful. The only time Christ burned with 
righteous indignation and spoke cutting words 
of rebuke and correction was when men were 
hypocritical, when they were smugly complacent 


THE CHRISTIAN PHYSICIAN as) 


in their religious leadership and so self-satisfied 
that they would not be taught. The more sinful 
the penitent, the more tender was the treatment 
of Jesus. His life is replete with compassion 
toward the multitude, who are like sheep with- 
out a shepherd, helpless in their ignorance, 
pressed down with burdens, crushed by poverty, 
and without comfort in sorrow. Christ revealed 
to the people their sinfulness, but always with 
a winning grace which showed his love toward 
them, his sadness for their sorrows, and his 
sympathy with them in their cares. The physi- 
cian is compassed about with frailty in his own 
life and in the lives of those who are his patients. 
He does well to remember the weaknesses of his 
own life. He does best when he acquires for him- 
self that mind which was in Christ, when he 
achieves that compassionate, tender spirit which 
his Lord possessed. It is often hard to determine 
the cause of disease, and frequently the cause 
lies outside of any known power of the individual 
to control. A genuine scientific attitude makes 
most physicians exceedingly charitable in judg- 
ing their fellow men. 

Four classes of men listen to the confessions of 
their fellows. The banker is told of their finan- 
cial straits, the minister of their hopes and 


24 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


aspirations, the attorney of their transgressions 
of law, and the physician of their physical dis- 
tresses and frequently of their sins. To the 
physician is imparted the most intimate of family 
secrets, and he knows of the personal life of 
individuals as no other man. Years of training 
have made him an acute observer of the signs of 
disease. Those who have sinned willfully or con- 
tracted disease through contact or inheritance, 
though they be innocent personally, all come to 
the physician. He is the confessor to whom are 
revealed the most serious secrets of life. His 
attitude toward the things that mar and destroy 
life is of great importance. If he views evils as 
necessary and tolerates the willful destruction of 
life on the part of the patient, he will have one 
kind of influence. If he is sensitive to the best 
in the morals of his day, his influence will be of 
another sort. If he is truly Christian with a real 
knowledge of what the human will can do when 
strengthened by the grace of God, his stand 
against wrong will be definite, positive, and 
helpful. No man can respond readily and help- 
fully to the moral needs of his fellows and not be 
strengthened thereby in his moral life. The 
secrets of men constitute a heavy responsibility. 
To hear them is important because of the service 


THE CHRISTIAN PHYSICIAN a0 


which can be rendered to the teller, and also 
because of the reflex influence which these con- 
fessions have on the one to whom they are told. 


IV 


In former times, the practice of medicine was 
concerned with the alleviation of suffering and 
the prolongation of life. Physicians were passive 
in the presence of disease, doing what they could 
to relieve suffering, but thwarted as to how to 
combat disease. With the development of the 
germ theory a weapon was placed in the hand of 
medicine which enabled it to alter its attitude 
and to add a new chapter to human progress, 
perhaps the greatest single chapter in the modern 
world. When a clear appreciation of the wide 
significance of the germ theory had been grasped, 
the submission of the past gave place to an 
ageressive, scientific warfare against disease. 
Foe after foe was vanquished. Medicine went 
forward with gigantic strides, for its outlook and 
temper were altered. There had come a faith 
that every disease could be overcome. To 
achieve this end medical laboratories were estab- 
lished and enlisted in the campaign against the 
destroyers of health. A new school of medicine 
arose with emphasis upon nursing, exercise, 


26 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


massage, and mental therapy. Medicine be- 
came a conqueror. The fighting spirit of science 
had been incorporated in it. Never again will 
it remain passive before any physical disaster. 
It has fashioned an instrument by which it could 
be a master. It has come into its own. While 
physicians know that they are uncertain at many 
points about the. correct treatment of disease, 
nevertheless they are sure that there will come 
a day when for them confusion will give place to 
understanding, when victory will be won. In 
medicine a realm of truth and blessing has been 
brought to light far beyond any human expecta- 
tion. 

Those who practice medicine are in a current 
of scientific progress. They are technically 
trained men who are able to appreciate the 
rapidity with which knowledge grows and the 
helpfulness of such advances for their practice. 
For the physician to acquire the scientific spirit 
in the first place, then to keep abreast of the 
times and to meet all the demands made upon 
him for service, will absorb the waking hours of 
each day. This means that his vital contribution 
to his fellows, both of his own life and of his 
service, will fall within the practice of medicine 
as a profession. Once the goals of life are de- 


THE CHRISTIAN PHYSICIAN ma 


termined, each day may claim his entire energy 
and each day may satisfy his finest ambitions. 
The words of Jesus concerning thought of the 
morrow are particularly applicable to the scien- 
tific worker. 

When the unnumbered multitudes in whose 
lives disease has been prevented or overcome 
pass in review, the man who in his heart holds 
religious views hostile to such an advance, must 
be “set on fire of hell.” Any view of life hostile 
to the progress of medical science will be brushed 
aside by the devotees of that science as unworthy 
of consideration, and justly so. Those who say 
that we do not care how many babies die or how 
men suffer since we wait for the coming of the 
Lord may find their Lord a consuming fire. 


V 


Because the physician’s life is spent in treating 
the body, he is exposed to temptations of a 
physical nature. In the early years of his pro- 
fessional career there are many sharp and subtle 
temptations which confront him until he has 
been purified by contact with the sufferings of 
many and is thoroughly committed to the obvi- 
ous lessons of science. The teaching of Jesus 
which deals with the purity of life appeals to the 


28 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


physician in a very marked way. ‘Time brings to 
the surface the ravages wrought by disease in 
those who disregarded the laws of purity. If the 
physician is a right-minded man he will be re- 
pelled from that which causes so much suffering 
and distress. The warning that it is better to 
lose an eye, with all of the possibilities of looking 
upon this beautiful world, rather than to be 
controlled by bodily passion should compel the 
attention of the physician as the sane instruc- 
tion of a perfectly balanced mind. The parallel 
admonition that it is better to cut off the hand 
and lose it than to use it as an instrument of evil 
should be accepted as the teaching of a thought- 
ful and discerning observer of human life. It is 
significant that Paul said of himself that he 
pommeled his body and subjected it, fearing lest 
he otherwise might come to be a castaway. The 


physician can appreciate the fairness of the , 


teaching of Jesus when he deals with physical 
temptations, because many of the diseases which 
he is called upon to treat have their origin directly 
or indirectly in bodily abuse. The approach of 
our Lord to physical defilement was somewhat 
different from that of the physician. He saw it 
as marring the soul as well as the body, and as 
causing both to be lost in hell. The Master had 


THE CHRISTIAN PHYSICIAN _ 29 


all the more reason to be forceful in his warnings 
against being controlled by appetite, for to him 
the penalties for surrender to it were eternal. 
Yet the physician has such knowledge of the 
strength of physical temptations and the misery 
caused by surrender to them that the teachings 
of Jesus come home to him with special reason- 
ableness and power. 

The miracles of Jesus will ever be a source of 
confusion to the physician until he is able to 
think in terms of the essential meaning of the 
life of Jesus. There is one clear reason, at least, 
given in the New Testament for the miracles of 
physical healing. Jesus used the miracles to 
convince those of his generation that he was a 
Revealer of God. It is almost impossible for us 
to transplant ourselves in thought into his time. 
Monotheism itself was not even a generally 
established fact. Jesus, in the short span of a 
few months, had to convince men that he is the 
Revealer of God. When as yet the ages had 
scarcely appreciated monotheism, they were 
challenged to accept the incarnation. While 
miracles of healing were performed to alleviate 
suffering, they had in them an impact which was 
more than that of one man wishing to aid 
another in pain and distress. He burned into 


30 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


the souls of those who saw him the fact that he 
was godlike in power. These experiences were 
means by which they could reach to him as 
divine. He said that physical miracles were 
within the circumference of faith. His life and 
his words and, as a last resort, his works were 
urged as the ground of belief. Put into modern 
terminology it meant that Jesus controlled a 
realm of law and life which healed bodily ills and 
even raised the dead. Like power was com- 
mitted to his apostles to accomplish the same 
thing for which he used it, primarily to establish 
him as God. Early Christians accepted Jesus as 
God, trusted and served and loved him in life, 
and were martyrs for him in death. This con- 
viction that he is the Revelation of God is the 
core of Christianity and ever has been. 

His early followers believed in Jesus because 
of his character and teaching, fortified by. 
miracles. Later they attempted to explain the 
incarnation, a fact which has never been ration- 
alized in spite of the Church’s continued loyalty 
to it. The virgin birth is not merely a question 
whether certain verses should remain in the 
Bible. The defenders of religion have been led 
to cling to the virgin birth of Christ because they 
desired to keep the reality of his divinity as well 


THE CHRISTIAN PHYSICIAN a 


as of his humanity. One more deified human 
being among the many Greek gods of that type 
avails little as a Saviour of men. Historically, the 
attempt to explain Jesus followed acceptance of 
him as the Saviour and did not precede it. 
Christ as a doctrine was an effort to rationalize 
an already existing faith. The experience of 
being saved was the fundamental thing. At 
heart it has ever been very simple. 

Jesus as the Saviour can create a type of 
character in his followers like his own. He had 
one test for his followers—that they should be 
obedient to him as he himself was obedient to 
God. The character of Jesus is the fruit of that 
obedience. The character of the Christian is the 
test of his discipleship. This Paul saw clearly. 
The climax of First Corinthians is reached in the 
thirteenth chapter where Paul reveals love as the 
more excellent way. In Galatians, Paul is care- 
ful to make likeness to the character of Christ 
the ground for every Christian hope. Once the 
attitude of Jesus and Paul is accepted as the 
spiritual test of Christianity and miracles are 
relegated to the position assigned them by Jesus 
himself, then we are in a proper position to 
estimate the work of the Christian physician. 
How natural it is for the physician to see his 


32 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


work as a labor of love! How callous at times it 
would be to conceive of it in any other manner! 
He need not cry through the street that he loves 
his fellow men. If he will only follow the fine 
promptings of his soul when about his daily 
tasks, he may be of the spiritual company of 
those who love their fellow men. What finer love 
for men can flood the soul of a worker than to 
know that after months or even years of patient 
labor he has conquered for all time and for all 
mankind a dread disease? Alone with his dis- 
covery, before it is made known to the world, it 
is only a step for the physician to move into the 
great love of Jesus for all mankind. The Scrip- 
ture tells of the joy of God over a sinner who 
returns to him. Only in this modern age can we 
write of the joy of God over the discovery of a 
patient, taciturn, unselfish scientist who has con- 
quered some form of death for all future genera- 
tions of his fellow men. The wonders of physical 
healing wrought by one such man may be more 
important than all the so-called miracles of 
physical healing from the days following the 
New Testament period until now. To know 
Jesus after the spirit, to be inspired by the — 
motive of love which ever prompted him, may 
be to be nearer to our Lord in this twentieth 


THE CHRISTIAN PHYSICIAN 33 


century with our great opportunities for helpful- 
ness than to have lived in his day, to have 
wondered at his teaching, the while not under- 
standing that he is God. If over the centuries 
men have accepted him as Lord, is it any wonder 
that physical miracles ceased? For they were 
used in his day, primarily, to help unbelief, 
while even as he used them, he valued them as 
of secondary importance, hoping that in his 
character and teaching his contemporaries might 
find the genuine basis for faith in him. 

In fact, the highly trained physician of to-day 
does not expect the hand of physical death to be 
stayed by divine intervention. He has seen too 
many die to have any false notion that death is 
not something inevitable. For him, this is a 
fixed fact of experience. Many have never 
clearly apprehended it. They are as yet unin- 
formed. 

What then is the proper view of a serious ill- 
ness? It is to be fought with every agency of 
scientific skill. This means that until the end, 
and aggressively, every available means is to be 
used to conquer disease. God is not expected to 
violate the physical laws governing the body. 
The scientist feels that the God who made this 
universe and its laws is honored more by the 


34 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


uniform operation of these laws than by any 
intervention which sets them aside. Within the 
laws of God man lays down his physical life. It 
is to belittle God to expect him to disregard his 
laws. 

The body gains significance because it is the 
house of the human spirit. The soul of man has 
its highest fruition when the character of Christ 
is being formed in it in codperation with him in 
his great program. The problems of the future 
life and the resurrection of the body are not of 
the laboratory. The integrity of God is the hope 
of man. His moral integrity is the basis of 
human confidence in him. The God who planned 
and wrought our complete salvation through our 
Lord Jesus Christ is our Stay. We believe in the 
resurrection of the body and the life which is 
everlasting because in character we may be like 
him. We know whom we have believed. Jesus 
pledged himself repeatedly to care for his own 
in their total humanity—both body and spirit— 
because in character and life they were forever 
united to him. This also is the great conviction 
of Paul who, having defined Christian character 
in the graces of love and having enumerated the 
appearances of Jesus after death, could thank 
God for Christ through whom we have victory 


THE CHRISTIAN PHYSICIAN 30 


over death. What if a few crying out to God 
have been spared a few brief days? The stream 
of death is wide and deep and a few eddies in no 
way alter the current. What men persistently 
ignore is that they must die. When, as physi- 
cians, they do take note of death they are slow 
to postulate any particular condition of life 
beyond the death of the body. Hence, many 
physicians feel that they are not good Church- 
men. A true Churchman is one who believes 
that Christ will not let that life perish which has 
won the marks of his character as its own posses- 
sion in this present life. When the few simple 
and clear promises of Jesus concerning the future 
welfare of the believer are seen in the light of a 
faithful Christian life, then only do they give 
him adequate ground for a satisfying hope. This 
does not mean that any man knows the details 
of that future. It is not fitting to dogmatize here. 
It does mean that because the present direction 
of the believer’s life is Christian in character 
he can trust the Christ to complete that which 
he has begun and nurtured in this present life. 

The best defense against a materialistic con- 
ception of life is a broad culture. Chemistry and 
physics are very important phases of life. But 
just as real to the savants of learning are the rich 


30 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


fields of history, philosophy, religion, literature, 
and art. To know any of these subjects well is to 
feel that man does not live by bread alone. They 
are realms of reality as genuine as any found in 
a laboratory. In fact, parallel with the develop- 
ment of the physical sciences there has been a 
scientific approach to every theme of human 
interest. The same fact-loving, discriminating 
spirit is now active throughout the whole realm 
of human life. If the final laws of the world are 
those operative in a chemical laboratory, then 
men are controlled by mechanical forces, free- 
dom is a hoax, virtue a delusion, God a figment 
of the imagination, and immortality a vain hope. 
The end of man, if materialism is ultimate, is 
death and utter oblivion. No matter how attrac- 
tive may be the garb of its speculations, it stalks, 
a hideous monster, through the world to dissolve 
into nothingness all that men cherish as finally 
worth while. Historically, the race has a happy 
faculty of holding to virtue, freedom, and God 
as realities, and of determining its conduct by 
them. It will always take mind to develop a 
system of organic chemistry or indeed to explain 
systematically any facts of the material world. 
There are innumerable facts of spirit which lie 
entirely without the realm of mechanical laws. 


THE CHRISTIAN PHYSICIAN 3 i 


Mind can explain mechanism and in part the 
laws of the spirit, but chemistry is blind and deaf 
and dumb in the presence of the great realities 
of the soul. Life is being given its proper place 
in our thinking to-day when it is held as primary, 
and matter is viewed as subordinate to it. This 
view meets the demands made by all the facts 
of the world and also satisfies the mind and the 
heart. 
VI 

Sympathy should be balanced by a fine sense 
of duty. The physician strives to restore the 
health of the patient. Leniency which would 
impair recovery would be neglect of the welfare 
of the patient. The surgeon must be controlled 
by a sense of duty. When he is aware that an 
operation is imperative, not to advise it because 
of a false sympathy would be almost criminal. 
Physicians vary as widely as do the members of 
any other profession. Some are sympathetic 
because they believe that thereby they can 
accomplish the greatest good, while others, even 
though they may be sympathetic, fear that the 
marked expression of sympathy may only agera- 
vate undesirable conditions. It is a matter of 
individual judgment and its use is to be deter- 
mined by a consideration of all the facts in each 


38 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


separate instance. ‘To enter into the experience 
of another so that there may be a community of 
interest, which in turn will make it possible to 
encourage the patient, is an obligation of the 
physician. Since the patient employs the physi- 
cian to aid him, the expression of sympathy 
which results in the encouragement of the 
patient is desirable. Sympathy is only an aid 
to recovery and not the final guide to conduct. 
The essential thing is to do one’s duty, inspired 
by love, and to live for the truth and promote it 
in kindness. 

The physician’s life is one of sacrificial service. 
The inventor or author can reap the reward of 
his genius in a monetary way as well as receive 
special honor of men, but the worthy practitioner 
of medicine will not patent or keep secret a 
medical discovery. The genius in curing human 
ills is in honor bound by the standards of his 
profession to make known any discovery without 
hope ofa cashreward. He belongs to an altruistic 
profession which sets as its goal the eradication 
of disease even though thereby it exterminates 
itself. Many physicians are hastening to pre- 
mature graves in the service of their fellows. 
The country doctor still has to make night trips 
through rain and snow and sleet. The average 


THE CHRISTIAN PHYSICIAN 39 


life of the physician is but little more than fifty 
years. Sacrifice is so common on the part of this 
profession as scarcely to excite comment. Doctor 
Walter Reed is as worthy of fame as the engi- 
neers who constructed the Panama Canal for he 
gave his life freely to ascertain the cause of 
yellow fever and the means of preventing it. 
This masterpiece of engineering was as much a 
problem in sanitation as in excavation. In 
plague-infested China, in typhus-stricken Servia, 
and in war-ridden Europe, the physicians and 
surgeons have gone about doing only good. 
Pasteur, Koch, Morton, Jenner, and Lister are 
mere names to the mass of people, yet these men 
have been benefactors of the race beyond the 
power of the human heart and mind to appre- 
ciate. Only God knows and understands their 
immortal service to mankind. 

The average physician does more charity work 
with less publicity than any other professional 
man in the community. There may be a limited 
number of physicians who secure large fees from 
the rich and whose charges are high to people in 
moderate circumstances, but the ordinary physi- 
clan carries a charity practice in addition to 
rendering full service for the money obtained. 
In his charity, he generally follows the Scriptural 


40 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


injunction of secret and unostentatious giving. 
There is no great charity to-day which seeks so 
little publicity and which in any way compares 
in extent with that of the men engaged in the 
practice of medicine. 


Vil 


The physician.is very close to the family. It 
is a common practice for a household to retain 
the same physician for many years. He is with 
them in all their serious trials of sickness. He is 
admitted to the inner circle of family life, 
trusted with their secrets, and relied upon to 
guard this confidence as a sacred trust. His 
occupation places him in close contact with the 
family spirit, which is the very spirit of the 
Gospels. Hence, as he promotes a_ healthy 
family life, he is laying foundation stones in the 
Kingdom of God. There is ofttimes the tendency 
within the family to seek release from its obliga- 
tions and there are temptations, also from with- 
out, to disregard its duties and privileges. The 
physician deals with sinful and weak people 
bound together by ties of family. He should see 
to it that by no suggestion is there given any hint 
of other than absolute trustworthiness. He 
enjoys the confidence of the family circle, and to 


THE CHRISTIAN PHYSICIAN Al 


violate it in any way would be to show himself 
unworthy of their regard. If they should not 
care enough about themselves to demand the 
highest type of honor in their physician, the 
physician has his own self-respect to maintain, 
irrespective of outside conditions. He may be 
solicited to perform a criminal operation. One - 
physician said, “If I should go to hell, I don’t 
want to go because of murder.” 

. In former generations the family doctor was 
the foremost figure in the medical profession; in 
fact there was no other. All the idealism of 
medicine centered in him. With the very late de- 
velopment of specialists, he has ceased to occupy 
the old place of undivided privilege and responsi- 
bility which he had always held. In group 
medicine he still retains his definite position as 
the one who makes the general diagnosis. Still 
at least seventy-five per cent of the sickness is 
cared for at home and the first to visit the 
patient is the general practitioner. In the swing 
toward specialization it is only fair to redefine 
the position of the family doctor in such a way 
as to give to him the full honor and compensa- 
tion due to him for his wide knowledge and 
necessary service. The general practitioner who 
brings a patient to specialists should be made to 


A2 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


feel that the patient is still in his care and that 
the patient will be returned to him when the 
service of a particular specialist is no longer 
needed. This would carry with it the obligation 
that he should seek for the patient the best 
technical skill obtainable among specialists. 
Unless the family doctor can give evidence of 
better judgment in securing the service of 
specialists than an intelligent patient, his service 
will be discarded. It would be very unfortunate 
if the idealism of family physicians should fail 
to be the personal inspiration of specialists. 
Although in group medicine there is a division 
of responsibility which lightens somewhat the 
load of responsibility for each member of the 
group, it would be nothing less than a tragedy 
for medicine if specialists should assume an 
impersonal attitude toward their patients.. With 
a divided responsibility there will be required a 
heightening of moral sensitiveness in order that 
the noble inheritance from past generations of 
general practitioners may be retained untar- 
nished. 

The physician is more and more taken into 
account as a servant of the state. His practice 
used to be almost wholly within the family, but 
now his work is enlarging rapidly so that it 


THE CHRISTIAN PHYSICIAN 43 


includes preventive medicine and public sanita- 
tion. The ideal of a state in which there are 
normal conditions for healthy growth and safety 
from contagion is becoming a working postulate 
of this profession. This should never mean that 
the work of physicians is to be juggled by 
politicians in such a way that they are not 
adequately compensated for their service. The 
Kingdom of God means more to physicians than 
ever before, for surely it must include the con- 
ception of a sanitary state as well as other things 
that make for human welfare. The modern 
physician can realize as physicians of other 
generations could not that he is assisting in 
forwarding a state fit to be known as a Kingdom 


of God. 


CHAPTER II 


THE CHRISTIAN LAWYER 
I 


ESUS was both a radical and a conservative, 
yet neither in the commonly accepted mean- 

ing of either term. He was even more than a 
radical. He was a revolutionary. The difference 
between the convictions of civilization and those 
of Jesus have been so great that even at the 
present time the reconstructive nature of his 
teaching has not become the common possession 
of men. If it had, the futility of making him 
only a modification of our better convictions and 
conventions would at once become apparent. 
Law deals with the realm of justice in social rela- 
tions. Jesus redefined justice tor mankind by 
teaching that it is the voluntary and loving 
bestowal upon others of the rights which belong 
to them in a society in which men are to be 
viewed as brothers under the common father- 
hood of God. The last part of this conception is 
not taken altogether seriously in the practical 
affairs of life. Then why should the first part be 
considered any more thoroughly? Yet it is this 
declaration of Jesus, that freely and without 

AA 


THE CHRISTIAN LAWYER AS 


being compelled one should give to others those 
rights which he wishes for himself, which sepa- 
rates him from the ordinary life of men. That 
one should give justice in this sense, even 
though the party who receives it has no intention 
of responding in a like spirit, to many seems 
Utopian and impossible in the world as it is now 
constituted. Many follow Jesus under the mis- 
apprehension that he will not alter their lives 
fundamentally. They have drifted toward Christ 
because of his loveliness without defining to 
themselves just what he might mean for them as 
a transformer of life. If they were asked to 
choose between Jesus as he is and their present 
good-natured and complacent lives, many would 
reject him and his teaching because it would 
seem to them as outside that which is practically 
possible in conduct. 

Lawyers, as a class, are inclined to think 
highly of themselves. Since their professional 
duty is to establish social justice, they have the 
right to feel that they are engaged in a noble 
work. In its essential nature, the profession of 
furthering justice in all human relations cannot 
but be a very worthy calling. However, some 
attention should be given to the prevalent dis- 
trust toward lawyers as a class. About eighty 


46 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


years ago, De Tocqueville, a foreigner who was 
competent to judge impartially of Amercan life, 
said of lawyers: “In America there are no nobles 
or literary men, and the people are apt to mis- 
trust the wealthy; lawyers, consequently form 
the highest political class. .. . As the lawyers 
form the only enlightened class whom the people 
do not mistrust, they are naturally called upon 
to occupy most of the public stations. They fill 
the legislative assemblies: and are the heads of 
the administration; they consequently exercise 
a powerful influence upon the formation of the 
law and its execution.” In contrast to this 
laudatory estimate of the position formerly 
occupied by lawyers is the discriminating judg- 
ment of James Bryce, who said in “The Ameri- 
can Commonwealth”: “But [ am bound to add 
that some judicious American observers hold 
that the last thirty years have witnessed a cer- 
tain decadence in the bar of the great cities. 
They say that the growth of the enormously rich 
and powerful corporations willing to pay vast 
sums for questionable services has reduced the 
virtue of some counsel whose eminence makes 
their example important.” If these estimates 
are fairly accurate, it may be concluded that 
when the members of the bar sought to promote 


THE CHRISTIAN LAWYER AT 





public welfare they retained the respect of the 
people; but when individuals became in a large 
measure the paid agents of those seeking special 
privileges, they lost that regard in a large degree. 
When the privileges of big business were danger- 
ously threatened, some members of the bar with 
a keen scent for the advantages connected with 
such business have been arrayed against those 
who are engaged in a struggle for genuine human 
rights. Yet many lawyers can say that their 
counsel and conduct has been such as to influence 
men to give, without compulsion, the rights 
which are due other men. Those who have so 
lived represent the highest type of manhood in 
the legal profession. 

There is a second feature of the teaching of 
Jesus which prevents its radical nature from 
compelling attention. His injunction that rights 
are not to be secured by the use of force makes 
him more conservative than the conservative 
himself. 

In Jesus there is a blending of two convictions 
that go to the root of human relations. On the 
one hand, there is the assumption that each man 
is to take the initiative in giving justice to others; 
and on the other hand, there is the assertion that 
a spiritual Kingdom cannot be forwarded by the 


AB SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


use of force. There is in him a passion for 
righteousness, and at the same time a willingness 
to suffer and die that others may be won to his 
way of promoting the truth. In his earthly life 
Jesus hurt no man. He deliberately chose to be 
hurt as the most useful way of living. To suffer 
and die for righteousness’ sake is not to demand 
your rights and-compel others to give them to 
you by the use of force. 

Jesus’ own life is the best illustration of what 
is meant by these two conceptions. He was 
earnest and aggressive in promoting justice, put- 
ting his whole heart into the effort. On the other 
side, his tragic death is hard for men to under- 
stand. The cross was not something tacked on 
to the life of Jesus. He elected it. It was the 
logical outcome of his life. Early in his ministry 
he saw that a certain way of living would bring 
about apparent defeat. To have escaped the 
cross would have meant the rejection of his 
chosen manner of life. It would have involved 
self-betrayal and disloyalty to God. There is no 
virtue in sacrifice simply that pain may be en- 
dured. But when sacrifice is seen to be the 
logical outcome of a scheme of life to which one 
is committed, then there may be great merit in 
it. Jesus is the Revelation of the way in which 


THE CHRISTIAN LAWYER 49 


men should live. This universe is favorable to 
his way of life. Sounding life in its depths, he 
revealed what was the meaning of healthy living. 
He showed what it meant to be in harmony with 
the universe of God and that social order which 
should exist and finally triumph. He is the 
Leader of humanity, not of any professional 
class. His teaching for mankind and hence for 
every class, reveals Jesus the Radical, and Jesus 
the Conservative, although neither term de- 
scribes him adequately. 

This chapter is not an attempt to dilute the 
teaching of Jesus until it is only a slight step in 
advance of our present law. That has been done. 
It is an endeavor to guide the attorney into a 
deeper appreciation of what it means to be a 
disciple of Jesus, by suggesting the differences as 
well as the agreements between the law and the 
life of our Lord. 

II 

There is no group of men in society more 
thoughtful morally in a wide range of human 
interests than lawyers. It is their difficult task 
to define that which is right and that which is 
wrong in the various relationships of human life 
and to formulate their conclusions into prec- 
edents for the settlement of further controver- 


50 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


sies. Therefore, they are compelled to make a 
careful analysis of the organization of human 
society in all its various forms. In the problems 
which confront them, they seek balanced judg- 
ments; they strive to view matters from every 
conceivable angle, and after exacting thought 
and mature reflection, aided by ages of accu- 
mulated wisdom, they attempt the formulation 
of just and beneficent rules of action. Hf a sensi- 
tive conscience is a matter of training, then this 
class of men should have the widest appreciation 
of what constitutes right conduct. 

No other profession requires such varied and 
serious reflection on all the problems of life. 
The moral earnestness of Jesus should appeal 
to -them. He was an Expert in the field 
with which they are familiar. His was a sus- 
tained moral enthusiasm. He created new 
moral distinctions. He made clear those moral 
differences which had never before been fully 
appreciated or which had become obscure. 
Jesus’ love of virtue and his devotion to fur- 
thering it in the lives of others should endear 
him to all who spend their working hours 
in promoting justice and equity among men. 
But this companionship in moral endeavor 
should do more. It should reveal standards of 


THE CHRISTIAN LAWYER ol 


morality and attitudes of life not embodied in 
any legal code. It should give a means for valu- 
ing much that is found in the law so that its 
inconsistencies and weaknesses may be felt, and 
its genuine strength appreciated. In other 
words, it should give the lawyer that real guid- 
ance in many of the practical affairs of life 
which will enable him to follow a Christ rather 
than to follow a system of law that may embody 
only in part his teaching and spirit. 

The practice of the law is based upon a knowl- 
edge of the principles of law and the precedents 
which reveal how they should be applied. So 
important is a knowledge of past decisions that 
if the lawyer is well informed as to typical pre- 
cedents he may be able to follow the practice of 
law even though he is not thoroughly grounded 
in the legal principles. Almost every lawyer 
will have high regard for what has been accom- 
plished in the past. The Old Testament fur- 
nished those precedents which were valuable 
sources of information and guidance to the 
Saviour. He was a conservative, not formally, 
but in the sense that the spirit of the law con- 
trolled his conduct. He did protest vigorously 
and repeatedly against formalism in religion, yet 
this should not blind us to the very important 


52 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


consideration that Jesus himself loved worthy 
precedent and followed it. However, he did 
more—where precedent was faulty he rejected 
it; where it was obscure he clarified it; where it 
had not spoken he extended it. At no time was 
he a slave to the law. Always in the background 
of his thought was the desire to promote human 
welfare, and no unworthy precedent, even though 
found in the Old Testament, was allowed to 
thwart his effort to promote that welfare. 


Ui 


Lawyers have been inclined to speak of the 
law before the uninitiated as though there had 
always existed a single system of law, united in 
its parts, only more developed in this day. This 
illusion of the law will have to be surrendered. 

The Archbishop Agobard, of Lyons, said that 
in his day five men meeting together might be 
loyal to five different systems of law. When the 
law is spoken of, then, what law is meant? Is it 
the Roman law? But the Roman law was for a 
patriarchal society in which free men had few 
duties in their own households. It sought to 
harmonize the conflicting interests of these men 
as they dealt with one another outside their 
households. Perhaps the German law is referred 


THE CHRISTIAN LAWYER 53 


to, with its emphasis upon human relations as 
involving duties inherent in these relations. The 
Roman had rights only within his household. 
Certainly this is not the Germanic conception 
involving the duty of subjection on the one hand 
and protection on the other. Then if the German 
code and the Roman law are not identical, where 
is the English law to be placed? Plainly there 
have been various systems of law, and. these, 
originating independently, have no necessary 
agreement. Among our southern states, a few 
hold to the French law, while English law is the 
basis of most of our state legal systems. A frank 
statement of the case will compel almost any 
attorney to admit that many times he cannot 
tell, even after careful study, what constitutes 
the law in a particular case. Cases are taken 
into court and won only to be overruled in a 
higher court. Repeatedly neither side knows 
which will win; hence both parties prolong the 
contest until one is surprised at a verdict in his 
favor. There is no “the law.” 

With this misconception out of the way, and 
with a frank admission of what its rejection 
‘implies, a discussion concerning the relation 
of the attorney to the teaching of Jesus is 
possible. 


54 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


IV 

Economic relations enter very deeply into 
Angle-Saxon civilization. The institution of 
private property les at the foundation of our 
system of life. It might seem that an economic 
approach to social relations would be the only 
one needed to explain the development of our 
laws. Nevertheless, the fact that economic 
factors are always present does not mean that 
the issue is solely economic. The struggle of 
workingmen to increase wages is an economic 
effort, but the ideals which have led to the de- 
mand for an increase of pay are even more 
important than any concessions which may be 
sranted. Without these ideals, the effort would 
not have been made, and the ideals finally set 
the boundaries to their demands. Had unre- 
strained anarchy ever been the ideal of labor, 
the whole wage scheme would have collapsed 
long ago. The ideals behind the demand for any 
economic change are the most significant factors 
in any social situation. What constitutes legiti- 
mate ideals for mankind, although partly em- 
bodied in legal systems, falls outside any one of 
them. 

The contrast between the rights formulated 
into laws and those formulated into ideals is 


THE CHRISTIAN LAWYER ay) 


revealed in the compromise nature of law. Law 
protects interests which are never completely in 
harmony. In a number of instances, as in con- 
tracts, there is such a consensus of opinion that 
the element of disagreement is negligible. But 
in those relations in which there is strife between 
interests, law is certain to be a compromise. A 
harmony of interests and a uniformity of ideals 
would result in a common law, acceptable to all 
and binding upon all. In a democracy, this is out 
of the question. There seems to be no deep- 
seated idealism by which labor and capital may 
be led to see their factional interests in the light 
of anything more significant than their own 
welfare. In a democracy where the majority 
rules, that which to-day may be law for capital, 
to-morrow may be crime. Then, if capital has 
the power, it may make legal, the day after, that 
which has just been made criminal. Whenever 
strong forces clash in a democracy, the govern- 
ment straddles the fence, hoping thereby to 
maintain peace within the state. Judges are 
sometimes indecisive when a real moral issue is 
at stake in which equal power is arrayed on both 
sides. Here the legalist and the idealist clash 
sharply. To the moralist, compromise is repug- 
nant. To the legalist, it seems the best way out 


56 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


of a difficult situation. Compromise never 
settles anything permanently. It patches up a 
peace in which there is certainty of a renewed 
struggle as soon as either party feels that there 
is a chance for a successful effort. Law by its 
nature is often unsatisfactory as far as justice is 
concerned because it leaves both parties ag- 
grieved; they only await a favorable opportunity 
to take up the cudgels again. Legal decisions are 
often out of proportion, for the stronger group is 
frequently able to use the law to protect itself 
against the weaker. Then the law becomes not 
a rule of justice but a defense of successive 
groups who are able to shape it in their favor. 
Of course, where there is a united public opinion 
the law will express itself in terms of rights and 
duties that are common conviction. Only so far 
can it be said to be impartially just. The lawyer 
who hugs to himself the delusion that there is a 
uniform system of law to which there is common 
consent that is just in its regulations, may be 
able to maintain complacently his allegiance to 
Jesus and also his preconceived system of law, 
without recognizing the weaknesses of his posi- 
tion, or being greatly disturbed by his Chris- 
tianity. But the lawyer who knows that law is 
a growth, that it is only partially satisfactory 


THE CHRISTIAN LAWYER 57 


and full of inconsistencies because of its com- 
promise character, and, what is much more 
important, that it is yet to be shaped into a 
system which will give impartial justice, will see 
his Christian obligation in an entirely different 
light. There has been altogether too much of the 
attitude that the lawyer has a finished system 
of justice given to him. In the profession itself, 
he has a Christian influence to exert and a task 
to perform. Where there is so great an uncer- 
tainty on the part of lawyers as to what con- 
stitutes law, and where the forces of evil have 
no hesitation in trying to shape it so that it will 
act as their servant, no attorney who is a true 
follower of Jesus will fail to do all in his power 
to fashion the law into an instrument by which 
the broad program of Christ may be more 
adequately promoted. 

If a lawyer says this will require sacrifice on 
his part, he has discovered only the common lot 
of all who would create a better world. No 
Christian has to practice law if in that work he 
cannot make an honest living. The assumption 
that one must be a lawyer first and then, so far 
as one is able, a Christian, is to reject Chris- 
tianity. That which should be first in a Chris- 
tian life is loyalty to Christ and the willingness 


58 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


to carry his spirit and teaching into every part 
of life. Many a lawyer would be surprised to 
learn that he worships at the shrine of a statute 
book, yet if a man’s business remains severed 
from his religion, it becomes his god. If a lawyer 
cannot earn a living at law, he can supplement 
his income in other ways, and if necessary, cease 
to practice law. .'True, the public might call him 
a failure; but when did public opinion take the 
place of a clean conscience, or of God? The 
plain teaching is that the disciple must follow 
Jesus. More and more the faithfulness of a man 
is being tested by his willingness to apply 
Christ’s teachings in his business life. The dis- 
ciple’s conduct is the outward evidence of his 
sincerity, and men are increasingly interested in 
the conduct of other men. If they know that a 
man calls himself a Christian, they expect to see 
Christianity manifest in his work. No attitude 
toward law, no philosophy of life can excuse any 
lawyer from assuming the obligations common 
to all men who call themselves Christians. 


Vy 

The law is ever attempting to classify par- 
ticular cases under generalizations, in order that 
legal procedure may be simplified and justice 


THE CHRISTIAN LAWYER 59 


may be made more uniform in its applications. 
In contrast to systems which have sought to 
determine principles abstractly, the law has 
always possessed both sanity and balance, be- 
cause it has developed from the consideration of 
definite situations, rather than from artificial or 
hypothetical cases. This practical character of 
its interest has kept it close to life. For a year 
and a half, one of our most prominent law 
reviews has been devoting over one third of its 
contents to a statement of legal advances only. 
The articles are not generalized observations 
concerning the changes which have occurred. 
They are citations of cases in the various fields 
of law, with brief comments under each case, to 
show just what constitutes the advance. By re- 
vealing genuine respect for facts and an honest 
effort to interpret them in the fairest possible 
way, these articles emphasize the sane, whole- 
some, and practical nature of the law. Here lies 
the opportunity for a true service to society with- 
inthe law. No matter how humble the incident, 
there is often a possibility of its assuming great 
importance. It is reasonably certain that the 
physical forces of the world can be utilized as 
rapidly as they are brought under scientific con- 
trol. The social sciences feel that it 1s not un- 


60) SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


reasonable to believe that they may contribute 
to the control of human nature in the same 
scientific manner that the physical sciences have 
promoted human welfare. It is just here, where 
genuine social science comes into contact with 
essential Christianity, that law will develop to 
benefit humanity. The lawyer who is not in 
hearty sympathy with the modern social sciences 
cannot do his work most effectively, for he is not 
in accord with the way the world is actually 
erowing to-day. He may gather sufficient in- 
formation from the newspapers and _ periodicals 
in a diluted and perverted form to keep him 
from being altogether reactionary. However, if 
the attorney is to be a constructive worker in 
this modern age, he cannot afford to remain a 
stranger to the broad forward movement within 
the social sciences. Those lawyers who do their 
best, patiently and earnestly, in the light of a 
sensitive conscience attempting to determine 
that which is just in the almost numberless ways 
in which the law is being modified to-day, are 
making the essential’ contribution of law to this 
generation. 

Our national Government has made decisions 
in international relations of far-reaching import- 
ance in promoting human welfare. At least two 


THE CHRISTIAN LAWYER 61 


acts of the United States, both international in 
character, may be construed as a manifestation 
of the Christian life. The return of the Boxer 
indemnity was a gratuitous act, totally unex- 
pected and most favorably received by China. 
She set aside the income from that great sum of 
money to send deserving Chinese students to 
American colleges and universities. Throughout 
all of China there is now a friendliness toward 
the United States because of the return of the 
indemnity which many times that sum of money 
would not be able to purchase. That we should 
not seek retaliation has been amply vindicated 
in the far East. The other international act, one 
of much greater moment, was the promise of the 
late President Wilson that an indemnity would 
not be claimed at the conclusion of the World 
War. This pledge was kept, and the peace with- 
out victory became a fact of history. When 
partisan strife shall have lessened with the pass- 
ing of time, the magnanimity of this act will be 
appreciated as a national manifestation of good 
will under the leadership of a Christian Presi- 
dent. Here the President who played for the 
verdict of mankind created an international 
precedent. 

This Government has yet a great pledge to 


62 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


fulfill, the granting of independence to the 
Philippine Islands. There may be an honest 
difference of opinion as to when that should be 
granted, but no one can deny that we are com- 
mitted to that policy. The impossible has been 
accomplished for these people in education, 
politics, and business, and we have a right to be 
proud of our relation to them. Although they 
may view us with distrust and refuse to admit 
the great service rendered to them, when they 
have been given their independence the Chris- 
tian spirit will have been manifest again in a 
national way. 

Within the nation there are many movements, 
Christian in temper, which illustrate the great 
law of Jesus—that those having rights should 
voluntarily surrender them to others whenever 
they are due. Although women in the United 
States agitated in order to secure certain rights 
there never has been any deep-seated tendency 
in late years to withhold from women those 
rights which they felt justly belonged to them. 
Rights have been bestowed upon women in this 
country almost as rapidly as they have desired 
to assume obligations. In this movement there 
has been almost no strife and very little bitter- 
ness. The great rights which they have received 


THE CHRISTIAN LAWYER 63 


in the last fifty years represent one of the most 
noteworthy phases of the changes wrought in our 
law. So important are these privileges that many 
women hardly realize the benefits so freely con- 
ferred upon them. 

A second surrender of rights, often marked by 
deep feeling and strife, yet never in our country 
by civil war, occurs in the growth of labor 
unions, the privileges of servants, and the mass 
of legislation which is favorable to them. A 
hundred years ago it was a criminal offense to 
strike. Now it is an accepted right of labor. 
Each step in the advance of labor has meant the 
democratizing of the privileges of the more 
fortunate classes. Now labor possesses a mass 
of established rights which have been formulated 
into laws. One of the most important is the 
responsibility of the employer for the personal 
injury of the employee. In so far as these rights 
have been given because they were viewed as 
rights belonging to labor, they may be considered 
- as the expression of the Christian spirit. 

It is hardly necessary to call attention to the 
vast machinery of education, philanthropy, and 
social service, as directly controlled by the fra- 
ternal spirit. | 

However, there is a page in American history 


64 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


covered with blood where force ruled to secure 
for others the rights of human beings. The real 
issue was slavery under the guise of states’ 
rights. The outcome was to democratize privi- 
lege by means of war. With the perspective of 
history behind us, it can now be understood that 
it would have been better had their liberation 
been accomplished without the use of force 
through the willing surrender of privileges to 
those entitled to them. 

Men will finally secure their rights. These can 
be granted to them freely, and strife will be pre- 
vented; they can be given in a niggardly manner; 
or they can be withheld until acquired by force. 


VI 

There are certain temptations which must be 
encountered by every conscientious attorney. 
There is the temptation to ask witnesses unfair 
questions for the purpose of misleading the jury. 

‘Many indulge in this practice for the purpose of 
presenting the case of the client in a more favor- 
able light than the facts would warrant. 

When a person consults a lawyer, he does so 
because he is in need of assistance or knowledge. 
He can read the law as it is given in the statute, 
but he probably cannot construe it. He requires 


THE CHRISTIAN LAWYER 65 


the services of a technically trained man. His 
lawyer should be industrious, discriminating, 
and wise. He should know the law and be able 
to find the law bearing on the matter in hand. 
The latter can be done only by a careful analysis 
of the proposition to be investigated and the 
determination not to be diverted from the main 
issue by other interesting questions that may 
arise in the course of the inquiry. A distinct 
misconception of the law may arise in connection 
with a half-hearted examination of what it may 
be in a given case. The lawyer should be careful, 
exacting, and diligent, for the courts may have 
already passed on this very case but under 
different circumstances and conditions. He 
should ferret out and master every scintilla of 
law bearing on the case in hand, for a wrong 
construction of the law may mean the destruc- 
tion of the cause of his client. 

Lawyers are often required to interpose de- 
fenses which are technical in character. To 
neglect to safeguard the interests of the client by 
the use of technical advantages might even 
result in a decision in which injustice would gain 
a legal victory. It is difficult to determine when 
technical objections should be interposed. If the 
lawyer is a right-minded man, he will take 


66 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


advantage of such technicalities as will promote 
justice. The intent of the lawyer finally will be 
the deciding factor in each instance. As the case 
advances, it will probably become apparent 
whether technicalities have been claimed to pro- 
mote injustice or whether they have been 
advanced to further justice. Ofttimes in criminal 
cases a galaxy of attorneys may use every 
weapon at hand to clear a guilty man. By de- 
basing their office and becoming perverters of the 
law they fall almost as low as the criminal they 
have saved from punishment. Even so, it is not 
fair to assume that it is always wrong to claim 
a technical advantage in the law. 

The ambition to be classed as a leading light 
in the profession presents another temptation. 
The desire to win fame may be laudable, but 
there are not many who are willing to pay the 
price of close application to the drudgery of the 
law which is so essential to its mastery and with- 
out which there can be no real success. They 
seek to gain the approval of their fellows by 
sharp practices and in time they sink to their 
proper level. Not conscientious enough to do 
the careful work demanded by the law, they 
resort to methods which from a Christian stand- 
point would be wrong and which from a purely 


THE CHRISTIAN LAWYER 67 


moral viewpoint would be questionable. During 
the long wait that frequently occurs before a 
practice is established, the beginner is particu- 
larly open to the temptation of accepting ques- 
tionable cases. Politicians and unscrupulous 
business men may place a rising young lawyer 
under obligations to them in such a way that 
later he may find it very difficult to escape the 
charge of being ungrateful. They may ask a 
support which he otherwise would never give, 
for it seems to them they have earned the right 
to claim his support in even dishonorable under- 
takings. On the other hand, the control of 
wealth is beset with many pitfalls. Great cor- 
porations may demand that their legal repre- 
sentatives use every device of law to avoid the 
payment of just obligations. They may even 
demand that the ethics of the jungle be revived 
that the people may be mercilessly exploited as 
legitimate prey. To oppose such a corporation 
may mean, for the lawyer, loss of prestige in his 
profession and reduction to the rank of a moder- 
ately successful practitioner. 

Those lawyers who, for any reason, have 
forfeited their manhood and have become instru- 
ments in the hands of cunning and rapacious 
men cannot understand Jesus’ hatred of false- 


68 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


hood, trickery, and sham. They cannot appre- 
ciate his love of truth for its own sake, and his 
modesty in seeking public favor. Blind to the 
fact that life holds more important values than 
money-getting, they cannot know the deep 
satisfaction of manly, straightforward, honor- 
able dealing and the serenity that comes from 
having sought and lived for justice and truth. 
Should an attorney defend a man known to 
him to be guilty? The Christian attorney is 
entitled to see that the facts in any case are dis- 
closed in open court so that justice may be done. 
He may be justified in taking a case where he is 
morally certain that the party is guilty, in order 
that all the testimony that is true and that may 
tend to mitigate the offense may be brought to 
light. Penalty should be imposed according to 
the facts, and these can only be revealed in their 
entirety in an open court. It would be easy to 
fix an unjust penalty, punishing with undue 
severity or laxity, when all the circumstances 
had not been carefully scrutinized. It is another 
matter to defend a guilty man with the hope of 
clearmg him by concealing or perverting a part 
of the evidence, or by the use of trickery or fraud. 
A truthful man, and much more a Christian 
man, would not stoop to any dishonorable act 


~ THE CHRISTIAN LAWYER 69 


once a case had been taken. Requests of clients 
to “fight the devil with fire’ and to meet the 
tricks of opposing counsel are not to be con- 
sidered favorably. There is the definite demand 
laid on all men to live truthful and honorable 
lives, and the lawyer is in no way exempt from 
this general obligation. The Christian lawyer 
can test his action by considering whether or not 
it is in harmony with Jesus’ teaching and spirit. 
He cannot conceive of Christ as concealing or 
perverting the truth. His real problem is 
whether or not he will be found faithful in 
Christian service, whether his religion is to be a 
cloak of convenience, or whether it is really to 
control his conduct. 

Undue eagerness to win a case may pervert 
the judgment of a lawyer and cause him to do 
positive wrong when he may think he is right. 
When only the bright side of a case has been 
presented, and the attorney is a man of skill and 
ability, he may obtain a favorable verdict, only 
to find himself a party to promoting injustice. 
The moral life of many an attorney is marred 
through an inordinate desire to win and to be 
known as capable. The old saying, * Nothing 
succeeds like success,” may describe some of the 
most conspicuous of moral failures. 


70 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


Vil 

Jesus taught that he came into the world to 
establish a government, the religious nomencla- 
ture for which was the phrase, the Kingdom of 
God. He outlined the general plan of its growth: 
in the parable of the Leaven and the Mustard 
Seed, that rt was to come gradually; in the par- 
able of the Pearl of Great Price, that it was in- 
finitely valuable; in the parable of the Wheat 
and the Tares that it would meet opposition; and 
in the parable of the Leaven, that finally it 
would triumph completely. He lived in an age 
of monarchy, and the people among whom he 
was born expected that a Messiah would lead 
them in the establishment of an earthly Jewish 
kingdom. Jesus retained and purified this king- 
dom conception and made it one of the great 
central truths of his gospel. His was the hope of 
a new social order which should include the 
whole of life. Here politics, business, and family 
were regarded as under the sway of God in a 
world in which his will would be completely done 
in all the activities of men. It was left to his 
disciples to create the society which he in- 
augurated. 

In his earthly life, he devoted himself to renew- 
ing the hearts of men that as a natural result of 


THE CHRISTIAN LAWYER yal 


their transformed lives the outward kingdom 
would be formed by them under the guidance of 
those having a spirit like his own. This is the 
age in which the structure of society is to be 
reshaped, because a new life has entered the 
world and is even now refashioning institutions 
through the influence of those having the Chris- 
tian spirit. Their purpose is to give the life of 
Christ adequate expression, not only in the inner 
life of man but also in those social institutions 
in which his aspirations are mirrored. Attorneys 
have to do with the relations of men in all the 
forms which society assumes. If they will, 
Christian attorneys may be one of the greatest 
human agencies in establishing the Kingdom. 
No other men are so familiar with the organiza- 
tion of society ; no other men can devise so many 
practical ways of bringing about desired changes; 
no others possess the technical skill which is 
necessary to make the needed adjustments with 
so little friction. 

The Government of our country is under the 
control of lawyers. Lawyers are familiar with 
existing laws and for all practical purposes de- 
termine the changes that are to be made. They 
comprise the larger part of those holding offices 
of public trust and those officials who are not 


72 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


attorneys have to counsel with lawyers with 
regard to every important step which they 
contemplate. That public office is a trust and 
public moneys are trust funds to be spent in 
ways most helpful to the people should be the 
settled convictions of all public servants. Ideas 
of civic responsibility are to be stimulated by 
Christian men as they seek to introduce the 
social order which our Lord indicated would 
some day dominate on the earth. Few forms of 
public-service control are more prolific of good 
or evil than that of politics. The Christian 
lawyer can aid greatly in fulfilling the prophecy, 
written of our Lord, “The government shall be 
upon his shoulders.” 

In contrast to this very ideal way of viewing 
politics stand the facts of political life. The 
statement is so common that it may be monoton- 
ous that those seeking public life are generally 
felt out by the interests and have already sur- 
rendered, even before their election. Politicians 
in very many instances are hand in glove with 
those who live by promoting sexual immorality; 
the liquor interests once were their boon com- 
panions; they may stoop to use even thugs and 
gunmen to accomplish their desires. It is hardly 
permissible in many cities to ask what becomes 


THE CHRISTIAN LAWYER 73 


of the public funds, for diverting this money 
from its legitimate use is an occupation in which 
the politicians have become exceedingly pro- 
ficient. Back of practically every political 
erafter and corruptor of public morals is a 
lawyer, and he cannot escape the sharp censure 
which they both deserve. The attorneys are not 
simply onlookers. They protect vice, defend 
crooks, gloss over thievery, and promote graft. 
It is to the everlasting shame of this profession 
that so many of its members are supporters of 
political corruption. It takes a man of strict 
business integrity to practice law and at the same 
time keep clean. Ofttimes reforms have arisen 
outside of this profession which logically would 
be expected to inaugurate them, because its 
members lacked the vision which they of all men 
should have possessed. It would be a sad day 
for the legal profession if the great constructive 
plans for the welfare of the state should be 
formulated outside the class to which leadership 
naturally falls. 

Business should offer the most extensive 
avenue for service in the Kingdom of God. The 
average man spends about half his life in further- 
ing his occupation. If religion is to become real 
for him, it must be while he is about his daily 


TA SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


tasks—the wealth of possibilities of service and 
advancement in business should be so many 
privileges in the religious life. But when busi- 
ness becomes a battle of grasping greed, and 
human rights are sacrificed for the sake of ac- 
cumulation, then there is vigorous warfare 
against true religion. That brilliant array of 
corporation talent, by the skill of whose genius 
ereat industries are able to maintain property 
rights above human rights, may be, and prob- 
ably is, a highly trained and efficient enemy of 
the spiritual life. Those who give character to 
the American bar are generally the representa- 
tives of bankers, manufacturers, and capitalists 
who are fearful of any changes the outcome of 
which they cannot clearly foresee. These men 
think in terms of the welfare of wealth rather 
than in terms of the prosperity of all the people. 
Their example makes it a great temptation for 
the less successful lawyer to modify his judgment 
in the same manner in which his more prominent 
colleagues have colored their own. The Chris- 
tian attorney should guard himself carefully lest, 
in the service of a corporation whose practices 
are contrary to the spirit of his Lord, he forfeit 
his place in the Kingdom of God. It may be 
that he will suffer loss if faithful to his convic- 


\ 


THE CHRISTIAN LAWYER 75 


tions, but that is much better than to be aware 
that one is an enemy of God and a mighty force 
for unrighteousness in the world. In Jesus’ con- 
ception of life, work and religion were so inti- 
mately bound together that they were insepa- 
rable. The attorney who promotes legitimate 
business, placing human rights above property 
rights when they are in conflict, will find himself 
in league with the builders of a better society. 

The essential spirit of the gospel is that of a 
family in which men are related to a common 
Father and are members of the same household. 
That institution of society which was the fittest 
instrument to use as the symbol of spiritual 
realities was the family. Jesus took the family 
spirit out of the restricted field of the home and 
made it the force which was to control all the 
affairs of life. It was to be the real spirit in the 
heart of all men throughout all the social order. 
Not only was it to pervade earth, but it was also 
set forth as the spirit of God and as the very 


atmosphere of heaven. Anything which reen- 


forces family life strengthens society at its center. 
Anything which undermines family life not only 
harms the home but also is destructive of all 
human society and at warfare with the program 
of God in all its scope. 


76 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


The spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation 
which were demanded by Christ in other walks 
of life would be expected by him to be operative 
with even greater force within the home. When 
there is an estrangement between husband and 
wife, then the Christian obligation of reconcilia- 
tion and forgiveness becomes increasingly force- 
ful, for a break in the family is a rupture in the 
most important relation of life. It disorganizes 
not only the home but also the wider circle of 
society in which the fraternal spirit was meant 
to prevail. In Jesus’ day there were two schools 
—the liberal and the conservative—one favoring 
divorce for a large number of reasons and the 
other granting divorce for a few causes. The 
problem of divorce was a burning question then 
as now. In many ways the social situation 
among the Jews with regard to divorce resembles 
that in which we find ourselves. Into the society 
of his day, Jesus projected an ideal which seemed 
very severe even as it does to many in our day. 
Marriage was ordained by God in the beginning. 
It was for life, and divorce should probably be 
granted for but one cause. To be a party to the 
average divorce case in which the law of the land 
has been deliberately violated, in that the parties 
seeking. the divorce have connived together to 


THE CHRISTIAN LAWYER 77 


that end, is to be found in questionable company 
and will probably result in a stigma being at- 
tached by the more honorable members of the 
profession. 

A personal-damage suit may reflect as strongly 
against the integrity of a lawyer as a question- 
able divorce case, and the fewer such cases he 
handles, the better his professional standing. 


Vill 

Scripture reveals that the inclinations of men 
have not changed greatly since the days when 
Moses led the Children of Israel out of Egyptian 
bondage. They were constantly making com- 
plaints for which there was often no real basis. 
Those who now have grievances, real or imagi- 
nary, feel that they must tell some one of their 
troubles. Those having a strong desire to doright 
may go to the minister, or to some neighbor 
whose judgment they have come to regard 
highly, or to the person with whom they have 
- disagreed, and talk the matter over, or they may 
seek the advice of alawyer. This class of people 
generally need to be taught. When told what is 
right, they are usually willing to do it. These 
right-minded people often need wholesome in- 
struction as to what is the fair thing to do. It is 


78 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


the duty of the lawyer to tell these parties what 
are the chances to win in case of a trial, what is 
the honorable course to follow, and frequently 
to advise them to go home and forget their 
grievances. 

There is another class of clients who through 
selfishness generally demand their rights up to 
the letter of the law, not considering what may 
be right in any other sense. They desire only to 
win and to humiliate the one with whom they 
have a difference. What they need more than 
a knowledge of law is perspective in life. Views 
of honesty, consideration, and forgiveness are 
lacking. Where will these people acquire ideals 
of fair dealing if not from the Christian attorney 
who is their confidential adviser? Jesus left 
principles which are more than a set of rules. 
The selfish and literal client who seeks the advice 
of a Christian lawyer may secure from him more 
than an interpretation of law. He may sense the 
spirit of his lawyer and be attracted to that 
toleration and fairness which are the marks of 
truly Christian men. To minister life to willful 
and selfish men is the high privilege of the dis- 
ciple of Jesus. Then the attorney has truly 
become the keeper of the conscience of his 
chent when he has used his trust to establish 


THE CHRISTIAN LAWYER 79 


relations of justice and truth between them. 

The demand of Jesus that his followers possess 
an attitude of forgiveness lies close to his essen- 
tial message to men. If the true life surrenders 
freely to others their rights, an unforgiving spirit 
hampers and even destroys that manner of life. 
For this reason, a man should have good will 
even toward his enemies and he should strive to 
adjust any misunderstanding that may arise by 
direct conversation with the person concerned. 
Attorneys often try to make a settlement out of 
court before filing suit. The necessity of forgive- 
ness is strongly emphasized in the teaching of 
Jesus to the extent that if a man will not forgive 
another when he is penitent, he has barred him- 
self from membership in the Kingdom of God. 
The gospel demand of love has excluded all possi- 
bility of hate and revenge. Jesus’ treatment of 
the men who hated him bitterly and sought to 
harm him continually is the final example of the 
manner in which a man should conduct himself 
toward those who are his enemies. He would 
have won them to the truth had it been possible. 
Toward them he felt only sadness because of 
their failures, and good will in earnestly desiring 
that they might change their views. He was even 
willing to receive them, when penitent, as friends. 


80 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


He made repeated and constant attempts 
throughout his life to win to his cause men hostile 
to him from the beginning of his public work. 
He was one of the most hated of men, yet he bore 
no malice, was anxious to promote the welfare 
of his enemies, and sought to do them good. He 
urged his followers to possess the same spirit of 
love which controlled him in his earthly life. The 
Christian lawyer’s advice to his client should 
ever be tempered by the spirit of Christ himself. 
Those who are right-minded will yield readily 
to such counsel. ‘Those who are selfish and re- 
vengeful may be modified in the unjust and 
bitter positions which they have assumed. The 
lawyer will find that Lincoln was true to the 
real spirit of the gospel when he stated that 
the supreme opportunity of an attorney for 
domg good lies in his being a peacemaker and in 
never stirring up litigation. 

There are times when minor personal rights 
should be relinquished for the sake of peace, 
when a controversy is not worth while, even 
though a person may be in the right. Men 
are too prone to demand their personal rights 
and they often show comparatively little zeal on 
behalf of the rights of others. The teaching of 
Jesus, to go two miles in place of one, to turn the 


THE CHRISTIAN LAWYER 81 


other cheek, and to give the cloak, recognizes 
this strong tendency to exaggerate our personal 
rights and corrects it. 


IX 


Our laws come mainly from England. Courts 
were first established by the king and the 
common law developed out of the decisions of 
these courts. The records of these decisions be- 
came precedents for guidance in cases arising 
later. Blackstone was one of the early authors 
who wrote a treatise on precedent, thereby aid- 
ing the courts to keep informed on what had 
already been done. The proceedings were highly 
technical and if the litigant brought the wrong 
form of action, he was usually set out of court. 
The decisions of these courts are generally known 
as the common law and it is now in existence in 
this country. Such decisions usually responded 
to public necessity and reason, but there were so 
many cases that could not be settled fairly in a 
law court that constant appeal was made to the 
king. Hence, he established courts of equity in 
which rights were granted when there was no 
remedy at common law. These were called 
chancery courts and the king appointed the 
chancellor who gave redress when apparently 


82 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


there was no relief in the ordinary courts. In an 
equity case an appeal was made to the conscience 
of the court and there was an attempt to do full 
and exact justice. One has said that an action 
in equity was what God would do were he on the 
earth. When the law was administered by a 
right-minded judge, equity was broad enough 
to include a number of controversies where right 
seemed difficult of determination. Equity was 
to the law what the spirit of true religion is to the 
letter of the Book. It was true legally, as well as 
religiously, that the letter killed and the spirit 
gave life. Equity was to a part of the law what 
the soul is to the body. In a court of equity the 
common law, the social conscience of the day, the 
spirit of the religion prevalent in the State, and 
an untrammeled conscience free from legal 
technicalities aided the judge in the formulation 
of his decision. Then equity in turn became 
crystallized and incapable of a radical departure 
from the common law. In fact equity was closely 
related to the common law if not based directly 
upon it. 

The attitude of the Roman law and, in a large 
measure, of English law, was that you should do 
nothing until some one transgressed your rights. 
The attitude of Jesus was that we should give to 


THE CHRISTIAN LAWYER 83 


others the rights due to them. The former is 
negative in character; the latter is positive. 
That law shall not simply guard the rights of 
men but also be an aggressive agent for their 
welfare is a Christian conception. This view of 
lite has only partly modified our conception of 
law in the past but will change the law itself 
increasingly in the future. 

With every Christian added to the ranks of 
believers, the force which is to revise public 
sentiment grows larger and stronger; hence in 
our day the changes of law will be much more 
rapid than in the day of Jesus. The Kingdom 
now may come with leaps and bounds when 
once it could only creep, because Christianity is 
now a world force and the controlling spirit in 
the lives of millions of men. The government of 
God is partly established and it remains for 
Christianity to go in and take the land it does 
not now possess. 

Every age has had given to it a code of law 
~ which was the product of great strivings in the 
past. The social conscience of other days has 
found expression in the laws of ancient times. 
In so far as that same conscience is active to-day, 
the present law guarantees our liberty and safe- 
guards our rights. When new conceptions of 


84 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


right shall be achieved, then there will be a need 
of added laws to give them full expression. The 
attorney who in his personal life and public 
service is faithful in the discharge of his duties 
as revealed in the law, in a sensitive public 
conscience, and in the Scripture, is most worthy 
of the trust committed to him by the common- 
wealth and is of greatest service to society. 


CHAPTER Til 


THE CLERGYMAN 
I 


HERE are certain problems of a very prac- 
tical nature which present themselves to 
men when they attempt to maintain a fine 
idealism in their conduct. Since the clergyman 
should be an example of upright living in the 
face of the rather secondary experiences in life, 
these more ordinary trials are here noted at 
some length in connection with the work of the 
clergy and disregarded in other places with the 
understanding that almost all men are con- 
fronted by them. Among others, there are at 
least three tests which will reveal to the clergy- 
man whether, as a man among other professional 
men, he belongs within the circle of those in his 
own profession who possess genuine manhood. 
The first test has to do with his attitude 

_ toward those in his congregation who control his 
salary. James clearly defined this temptation 
when the prosperous were given undue promi- 
nence in the Early Church and the law of love 
was thereby violated. He said: “‘Hold not the 
faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, 

85 


86 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


with respect of persons. For if there come into 
your synagogue a man with a gold ring, in fine 
clothing, and there come in also a poor man in 
vile clothing; and ye have regard to him that 
weareth the fine clothing, and say, Sit thou here in 
a good place; and ye say to the poor man, Stand 
thou there, or sit under my footstool; do ye not 
make distinction among yourselves, and become 
judges with evil thoughts? . .. If ye fulfil the 
royal law, according to the scripture, ‘Thou shalt 
love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well: but if 
ye have respect of persons, ye commit sin, being 
convicted by the law as transgressors.” There is 
a sharp criticism by an apostle who discerned 
that the servility which is characteristic of many 
people when in th. presence of wealth was mak- 
ing its way into the Church. It is difficult fer 
rich people to understand manly, straightfor- 
ward treatment. They frequently mistake it for 
hostility. The worship of wealth as such is much 
more marked in Europe than in the United 
States of America. In the latter country there 
is a genuine appreciation of the ability required 
to accumulate wealth rather than a slavish ser- 
vility in rts presence. Nevertheless, not a few 
wealthy people have been so habitually flattered 
by those about them that they have lost the 


THE CLERGYMAN 87 


power to appreciate normal, healthy, and help- 
ful relations in which the self-respect of both 
parties is maintained. 

Asarule, the salary of a minister is small and 
at the same time he has the education of a 
gentleman. Such a culture trains him to spend 
money, while his profession yields a meager 
livelihood. As a very large number of pros- 
perous people practically demand special at- 
tention, the temptation to fawn before them 
for the sake of a competence becomes acute. 
The poor may be as exacting as the rich, 
simply because in their pride they are oversen- 
sitive, but their influence is not so noticeable. 
The average man is quick to discern whether 
the minister is loving toward all, respecting 
most those who are most genuinely religious 
and honoring such persons because a Christlike 
character should be honored. Nothing rejoices 
the heart of a real man so much as to find an- 
other man of the same caliber. It is indeed a 
happy occasion when that man happens to be a 
minister. In the esteem of the spiritually 
minded, the minister who is evidently a syco- 
phant before wealth and culture is placed ex- 
actly where he belongs. He may be an excellent 
speaker but in the test of actual life he has not 


88 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


made good. A clergyman who recommends as 
church officers those prominent in business with 
only secondary regard to their spiritual worth 
violates a sacred trust of spiritual leadership, 
and he cannot plead effectively with others to 
maintain their integrity in the strain of business 
life. Since few men can use power impartially, 
the centralization of religious power which ex- 
ists in the organization of some churches has 
almost always resulted in its abuse. The minister 
in an administrative position who demands ser- 
vility of his brethren in the ministry may very 
neatly exemplify the psychology of power but 
he is none the less a religious monstrosity. 

The second temptation of the minister is to 
judge of his usefulness by some other standard 
than that of his personal moral integrity wrought: 
by his religious faith. The revelation of God in 
the soul of a man is complete just so far as his 
own soul has been brought into conformity with 
the virtues exemplified in Christ. Since Christian 
morality is the fruit of Christian religion, the 
lack of such a growing morality in any life is 
sufficient evidence that vital religion is absent. 

Jesus is very practical in his statements con- 
cerning that which constitutes sin. He has no 
theory about sin as a racial inheritance, nor 


THE CLERGYMAN 89 


does he discuss its origin. The seventh chapter 
of Mark and the Sermon on the Mount reveal 
his general thought. The chapter in Mark deals 
with those things which defile a man. The re- 
ligious leaders about Jesus were concerned with 
clean and unclean things, but it was clear to 
him that food did not corrupt the moral nature. 
Man defiles himself; he creates sins as he fashions 
his character by definite choices. Evil thoughts 
result in evil deeds which defile the character. 
The defilement is a process in which man is cre- 
ating evil as he pollutes himself by definite de- 
cisions. 

The only service of any consequence which a 
clergyman renders to his fellows is to exemplify 
before them the moral integrity which he has 
won for himse:f through Christ as his Saviour. 
If he is not far superior to the average member 
of his congregation in moral trustworthiness, he 
cannot be a real helper of other men. He pro- 
fesses, by the position which he occupies, to be 
_a leader in the development of character which 
is like that of God and of Christ. When due al- 
lowance has been made for his failures, it will 
still remain true that he should be more reliable 
and more balanced in moral matters than his 
fellow men. The antithesis of the sin which is to 


90) SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


be overcome is the righteousness which is to be 
acquired. The minister need look for no illusive 
or artificial standard by which he may judge of 
his worth to men. Is he more reliable morally 
than his fellow men? If so, it is only because he 
is better acquainted with God. Jesus, because 
of the character which he revealed, purified and 
ennobled those about him. No matter how ob- 
scure the clergyman may he, if he has the charac- 
ter of Christ, his God is ever transforming men 
through him. No matter how high his ecclesi- 
astical standing, if he lacks the moral integrity 
which loyalty to his God should create in him, 
he is religiously bankrupt. 

The third practical test of the manhood of a 
clergyman is the extent to which he keeps him- 
self free from the entanglements of church poli- 
tics. The business of the church must be trans- 
acted, but if there is any place where matters 
which are related to the personal welfare of 
clergymen should be settled on the basis of 
merit, rather than by manipulation, surely that 
place is the church. Yet it is common knowledge 
that some of the most contemptible and under- 
handed things are done by some churchmen to 
make secure their personal interests at the ex- 
pense of others. It is distasteful enough when 


THE CLERGYMAN 91 


there is corruption in civil government but when 
the methods of ward politicians are used by 
clergymen, then it becomes not simply a sub- 
ject of indignation but also one of pity and 
disgust. 

In addition, the clergymen of the Protestant 
churches find themselves in an embarrassing 
position, particularly in the smaller towns. They 
are in Open competition against their brethren 
to get members into their churches. In thou- 
sands of towns there are so many churches that 
none is prosperous, and each minister is living 
on a starvation wage. A few members moving 
from one church to another may close the weaker 
church. Ministers find themselves promoters of 
denominational rivalry of the most intense type 
under the stimulus of the law of survival. It is 
a shame upon the Protestant ministry of Amer- 
ica that so little has been done by them codpera- 
tively to relieve this almost unbearable condi- 
tion. It should be a question for serious con- 
sideration whether a minister has a right to 
accept a charge in an already overcrowded field. 
If this should mean that he could not secure a 
pastorate, he might be justified in earning his 
living in some other way. Paul was not above 
making tents. 


92 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


If 


The minister of this generation lives at a time 
when the historical method is used in every field 
of learning to determine and to correlate facts. 
Educated men have this same mental attitude 
toward any problem which is to be considered. 
They ask, ‘What does any fact mean in the life 
and thought of the day in which it occurs?” 
This historical method is the rational procedure 
of this day by which to ascertain the truth, and, 
when rightly understood, it will give the real 
meaning of any fact, whether it be an incident 
in science, literature, art, politics, history, or 
religion. It happens that the average theological 
seminary has not become sympathetically re- 
lated to this method of study. There are only a 
few schools where ministerial students are taught 
the value and the necessity of a genuine his- 
torical study of religious problems. As a result, 
through no fault of their own, these men become 
clergymen who are out of touch with the best 
methods of scholarship in use in their day, and 
they are ofttimes hostile to the really construc- 
_ tive workers of their age. It is not uncommon 
for a minister to be intensely loyal to some sys- 
tem of theology formulated since the Reforma- 
tion, while the Scriptures, as a whole, are a 


THE CLERGYMAN 93 


closed book to him. There may be large portions 
of the Bible which he never reads, and often he 
cannot give an intelligible answer to the simplest 
questions concerning what some of its most im- 
portant books actually teach. Isaiah is one of 
the great books of the Bible, yet relatively few 
clergymen can give a clear statement of what 
Isaiah actually taught. The only reliable way to 
determine the contents of each book of the Bible 
is to ascertain the general culture of the day in 
which it was written, the historical facts in the 
narrative itself, and what the writer intended 
to teach in the light of the actual situation in 
which he lived. This is but the method of com- 
mon sense. The clergymen who would preach 
the Word must know the deep and valid re- 
ligious experience of the Biblical writers. But 
here the minister has to fight a battle which is 
not easily won. The Bible came to us through a 
Semitic people who had a mental framework un- 
like our own, about which they organized the 
separate facts of life. In addition, there were 
also varying cultures over the ages in which the 
Bible was written. Because the twentieth- 
century mind is different in its structure and 
in many of its most essential ways of thinking 
and feeling, the clergyman finds it difficult to 


94 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


assimilate the Bible in such a way that he can 
effectively preach it. It is a great day for a 
minister when he finds that his Bible is the pro- 
eressive revelation of God in the spiritual strug- 
gles of men, with its consummation in Christ 
Jesus, our Lord. Then, for him, the spiritual 
tides of God sweep through the Bible and there 
Christ is clearly revealed. The Bible, in all its 
parts, may become the living word of God for 
the one who will study it historically. This in- 
vestigation will give him a complete Bible, a 
large part of which was formerly a closed book 
to him. It can free him from the necessity of 
being perpetually on the defensive and apologiz- 
ing for many parts of the book from which he 
derives his authority. It may enable him to let 
the whole Bible speak to him so that he, in turn, 
may preach the Bible in all the wealth of its 
abiding spiritual values. To know what the 
Biblical writers thought in their day and place, 
and to interpret the culture of this age by means 
of the Scriptures is to teach fundamentally. The 
theology of the past has always been the pre- 
cipitate of the culture of the age in its fusion with 
Christianity. Monarchy and feudalism and 
their attending theologies are of the past. De- 
mocracy and science are of the present, and the 


THE CLERGYMAN 95 


residuum from the reaction of these social inter- 
ests upon Christianity will be the theology of 
the future. 
Itt 

The ministry is both a profession and a calling, 
but more particularly the latter. It is a profes- 
sion in that there are many details which are 
solely those of administration. There are the 
minutiz which the minister might desire to 
escape, but without attention to these details 
the organization of his church would remain 
loose and disconnected. But the ministry is 
much more than a profession which may be 
entered because of moral earnestness, a pleasing 
address, belief in the worth of the gospel mes- 
sage, and willingness to serve in a public ca- 
pacity. The minister is called of God to do this 
special work. That call is not limited to the in- 
vitation given in the Scriptures in which men 
are commanded to go into all the world and win 
all men to a confession of Christ as Saviour. 
The call is direct to the heart of the minister 
himself. There is often a holy unrest which may 
amount to agony of soul in which he is generally 
aware that it may be God’s will for him to 
preach the gospel. When he surrenders to this 
divine call, he is then assured that such is the 


96 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


plan of God for him. This anguish of spirit may 
not be felt in every instance. There may be but 
a quiet insistence in his life that he should be- 
come a preacher. Men are called of God through 
the use of means near at hand, such as the in- 
fluence of godly parents, or pastors, or Christian 
workers, or even without the use of any im- 
mediate human agency. Innumerable forces 
may be brought to bear upon the minister, and 
of these influences he may be conscious in vary- 
ing degrees, but all ministers should know that 
God has called them and that they have re- 
ceived their commission to preach directly from 
him. Here the selection of the ministry as a 
life service differs from entrance into all other 
occupations. Not only natural gifts but also the 
question of God’s invitation to the minister to 
become an undershepherd with the great Shep- 
herd of the flock of God must be taken into con- 
sideration. 

As one called of God to bear his message of 
salvation to a lost world, he must maintain a 
warm and close fellowship with his Lord. His 
should be a relation of unbroken communion 
with Christ every hour of the day. If he isa 
true minister, he is to communicate to others 
much of what is told him in secret. Unless he 


THE CLERGYMAN 97 


listens to the voice within, how can he know the 
will of God for himself or for his people? A 
minister is not carrying out his own program or 
doing his own work. He has been set apart and 
consecrated to the service of Another. His is 
to obey and not to command, to receive orders 
before proclaiming a message, to be taught as 
an adopted child before inviting others to as- 
sume the relation of filial service. This is the 
preparation for service which cannot be neg- 
lected and without which zeal in any direction 
will be only misdirected effort. 

With such a preparation of the inner life, 
every service is a reincarnation of the Master’s 
life, for the servant is inspired, controlled, and 
directed by the spirit of his Lord. His is the 
indescribable privilege of having such fellowship 
with Christ as permits him to be intimately 
acquainted with God. God knows him in his 
weakness, sin, and despair. He knows God in 
his forgiveness, goodness, and love. God may 
be so related to him and all the problems of his 
life that this communication with him is more 
real than anything else in his life. He knows 
that the statement of Jesus, that except a 
branch is united to a vine it will wither, is a 
sober summary of the condition necessary for, 


98 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


his spiritual life which has grown within him 
through years of blessed fellowship. 

The ideals of Christ form slowly in his mind 
until the convictions of Jesus become his own 
so that his message has the weight of the 
authority of Christ. The Christian minister is 
marked by a rare sensitiveness to spiritual value. 
Whatever values other men have achieved for 
themselves, it will always be true that for him 
the great prize is found in the warm personal 
relation between himself and his Lord. There 
are no words to express the wealth of meaning 
beneath the simple figures of the Scripture in 
which vital union with Christ is set forth. There 
are experiences which can be but faintly de- 
scribed. This wealth of secret life with God will 
ever be the minister’s most priceless possession, 
as well as his most necessary equipment for 
service. 

IV 

In his life with God there come to the minister 
specific problems in the solution of which he 
finds that insight necessary to aid others in their 
perplexities and trials. He may be vividly aware 
of his own sinfulness. To him it is ever a mystery 
that one as sinful as he could have been saved 
from the power of sin and the ruin wrought by it. 


THE CLERGYMAN 99 


He can view the havoc wrought by sin in his 
own life and reason therefrom what must be the 
strength of its sway in other lives. He knows 
that apart from God he would have been lost 
and that the same tendencies are operating in 
his life as carried the prodigal son far from home. 
It is sin which has blurred his spiritual vision 
when in hours of temptation he has fallen. It 
is sin which has palsied his hand when he should 
have aided some worthy cause. It is sin which 
has sealed his lips when some earnest word 
should have been spoken. It is sin which has 
often made his speech sound stilted and formal. 
It is sin which has stripped him of power, some- 
times caused him to question his calling, and 
plunged him into despondency and despair. 
The more earnestly a man tries to live for God, 
the more apparent to him do his own weaknesses 
become. Such being the case, the minister is 
tested in the ordinary temptations of life and 
also in all the subtle refinements of temptation 
which accompany a high type of spiritual life. 
It ought not to be difficult for him to sympa- 
thize and suffer with those who cannot give all 
the hours of their working day to furthering a 
spiritual life. Paul’s whole-hearted confession 
that he was first among sinful men will describe 


100 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


the soul struggle of any minister of the gospel. 
God committed the task of reconciling men to 
himself to those having in their lives all the 
frailties of other men. | 
In his dire need the minister has turned to 
Christ as his Saviour and in him has found de- 
liverance from the guilt and power of sin and 
also a positive program for a successful and 
satisfying life. In Christ he has found a com- 
panion, Saviour, and guide. He knows by per- 
sonal experience that he has been set free, that 
he has obtained a control of himself far beyond 
that of his own unaided will, and that this has 
been possible only through allegiance to his 
Lord. He has been saved from himself and the 
allurements of the world about him, and every 
talent he possesses and every gift which he has’ 
acquired has been reshaped and fused into a 
more perfect life. He has lost only his sins and 
his worldliness and has gained a new life and a 
new Kingdom in which all the lasting values of 
the soul and society are found. In short, he was 
lost and is now saved; he was discontented, now 
he is satisfied; he was unhappy, and now he is 
happy. He has discovered his place in the world 
system and he realizes that he is secure. All 
things are his in the sense that he can relate 


THE CLERGYMAN 101 


himself to them successfully and that he is de- 
nied nothing of real worth. 

Other things being equal, the clearer his 
knowledge of the historical Christ, the stronger 
will be his spiritual life. There are so many 
vague and often misleading conceptions of re- 
ligion and even of Christianity that he may 
quickly become aware that the more sensitive 
he is to the gospel record of the earthly life of 
Jesus, the saner will be his own views. 

The test our Lord gave of loyalty to himself 
was the keeping of his commandments. These 
commandments have to be known and treasured 
in the inner shrine of the soul if they are to be 
observed, and this can occur only when loving 
thought and eager meditation are given to 
Jesus’ words. It needs to be etched on the 
minister’s heart like lightning flashes against a 
background of blackest night that the words 
Christ spoke are both spirit and life. He said, 
“The words that I have spoken unto you are 
spirit, and are life.” The twentieth-century 
minister needs the written revelation of the 
first-century Christ that from it he may secure 
the bread and meat which will make him a 
strong man in spiritual things. | 

Prayer and service are the means ordained of 


102 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


God by which may be wrought those trans- 
formations in character which are so much de- 
sired and by which he may promote in the 
world those causes that are dear to his heart. 
In his own soul there may be a perpetual miracle 
wrought by prayér. He has learned that every 
grace possessed by our Lord may be acquired 
through prayer and service. The wealth of the 
life of Jesus, the wondrous qualities of his soul, 
the strength and kindness of his spirit, the never- 
failing attractiveness of his charm are his pos- 
sible possessions to be received as gifts from 
above whenever he truly prays for them. A 
change of heart in which Christ’s own life is 
received and the evils of life cast out is the gift 
which God bestows upon those who pray. When 
the minister has advanced in the Christian walk’ 
so that prayer is the habit of his life, then he is 
constantly renewed in spirit. Then for such a one 
to live is really for Christ to live again. He knows 
that, because he prays, God does things for him 
which otherwise would not be done; that he is 
different because of prayer; and that others may 
be influenced by prayer offered on their behalf. 
This ministry of intercession is very precious 
because his own life is transformed through it, 
as the just, tender, and loving will of God is 


THE CLERGYMAN 103 


realized in his experience; and, further, because 
through prayer he is able to control forces that 
change the world. 

Roughly speaking, a man may view his rela- 
tion to Christ in one of two ways: The Christian 
may aspire either to be an imitator of Jesus or to 
be one who is so controlled by the same spirit 
and principles that his character is similar in 
quality to that of Christ himself. In the latter 
case, his deeds of righteousness are then not so 
much the results of attempts at imitation as the 
expression of Christian characteristics with 
which his inner self has become identical. It is 
equally true of any other Christian having the 
same spirit, with the exception that the leader 
in any field of endeavor is stronger, more alert 
and forceful, than are the followers. The soul 
must assemble the evidence of its own faith and 
decide and act on its own initiative. A man 
ought not to be a parrot-like reciter of the teach- 
ing of another, for to do so is to destroy the 
creative spirit of discovery and to surrender the 
right of self-direction except by imitation. A 
child may begin its education by imitation but 
this need last only until strength has been gained 
for self-direction. We may need to imitate Christ 
until a foundation for earnest, aggressive, cre- 


104 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


ative effort has been laid; then the problem of 
life resolves itself into the discovery of ways of 
giving emphasis to the life of Christ in the 
world according to the facts as they are about us. 

Jesus left few rules that direct men in the 
minutiz of their lives. He did state principles, 
but in order that a principle may be applied, care- 
ful thought and ofttimes creative effort are needed 
on the part of the one using it. A single principle 
may control a bewildering number of details, 
but a principle does not work automatically. 
When principles have so acted on character that 
it has been strengthened in profitable ways, a 
man has a practical guide in the spirit of his 
own life. When the principles of Jesus are in- 
grained in the character of the minister of Christ, 
he then has an elastic, flexible, and exacting’ 
guide in the details with which he is confronted. 
He, like his Lord, may go about doing good, 
suiting his messages to all classes and conditions 
of men when he has acquired for himself that 
mind which was in Jesus Christ. 

Much of that truth which cannot be disre- 
garded has its source in the experience of the 
individual himself or in the experience of the 
living with whom his lot is cast. It is not enough 
to acquire knowledge from books. There is dan- 


THE CLERGYMAN 105 


ger here that the avaricious reader may lose 
originality through a slavish acceptance of the 
thoughts of other men. There is an insidious 
temptation to become bookish, abstract, and 
scholastic, and to strive for reputation as a 
scholar rather than to continue as a helper of 
ordinary people. The subtilities of philosophy 
are fascinating but should not interfere with 
practical efforts to change characters for the 
better and to improve conduct. 

A knowledge on the part of the minister that 
he is a sinner saved by the favor of God, that 
the Christ of the Scriptures is his Redeemer, and 
that by prayer and service he may effect changes 
in his own life and in society, is the essential 
without which he cannot minister worthily. 
With this knowledge, provided he has been 
divinely called to this task, he has that nucleus 
of experience by the use of which he may be- 
come a successful fisher of men. 


V 


A minister should be a humble man. Not that 
he should fawn over the rich or be servile in the 
presence of those who have power or place, or 
pander to those who may be able to promote 
his interests. Humility is not a matter of the 


106 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 

bowed head or lowered eyes or a generally dis- 
pirited attitude. Humility, in the sense of 
Christ’s manner of life, lay in the absolute sur- 
render of the soul to God and the realization of 
his will as the most vital of its concerns. Hu- 
mility before God is not the cessation of any 
single practice or the consecration of any earthly 
possession. It includes the practices and things 
of life, but it is more. It is to take this warm, 
intimate, and infinitely precious soul, and with 
no reservations surrender it to God that his 
will may be wrought in it. It is to give up one’s 
life, to die to self, and to live again for God. 
This is the test of humility—whether or not the 
minister has found his life in losing it for Christ’s 
sake. 

Less important, but truly Christlike in hu-: 
mility, should be the attitude of the minister 
toward the poor. It was a sign of the faithful- 
ness of our Lord that the poor had the gospel 
preached to them. He had special compassion 
toward the multitude as dependent sheep having 
no shepherd. He sought the company of the 
poor, because, perhaps, they were specially will- 
ing to hear his words and stood in greater need. 
Many poor were attached to him and he minis- 
tered to them in disinterested service. The 


THE CLERGYMAN 107 


minister may well examine himself to see whether 
or not he is becoming a member of a successful, 
cultivated, and attractive clique in his com- 
panionships. Can he discern in his life that 
there is a real place in it for loving, democratic, 
disinterested service of the poor? 

The poor are insistently asking the minister 
if he is willing to make himself their champion 
in their effort to improve their economic con- 
dition. He finds that, in the main, his salary is 
paid by the middle class and the wealthy people 
who condemn the introduction of the wage 
question into the pulpit. It takes real courage 
and no small sacrifice to champion the cause of 
the oppressed in the great industrial war which 
is being waged. ‘Too few ministers have anything 
to say for the downtrodden in business. The 
salary of the average minister is meager enough 
at the best, and churches that pay a good salary 
are few in number, so that there is a constant 
effort on the part of the minister to make him- 
self acceptable to the rich or prosperous middle 
class lest he be forced to take a small and un- 
important field. An incisive discussion which 
goes into particulars is tabooed, for their em- 
ployers are not at all backward in making their 
wishes known whenever a minister really deals 


108 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


with their relation to workingmen in a definite 
way. Certainly the minister ought not to be 
the puppet of a group of successful business 
martinets. He should remember that his Master 
was the Champion of the poor and the oppressed 
and that the moneyed interests hated him be- 
cause they sensed that he condemned them. 
Our Lord was not complacently related to the 
prosperous and the rich. He rebuked sin 
wherever he found it and those in high places 
were not exempt. The next great movement in 
history is to be the solution of our economic 
problem in the light of the teaching of Jesus. 
The minister who has nothing to say on the 
wage question is either ignorant of one of the 
most vital interests of modern life, or he is 
shirking his responsibility in order that he may 
retain his job, since he has not the courage to 
make the sacrifice which the proclamation of a 
full gospel would entail. 

With the development of the natural sciences, 
a new attitude toward facts has become common 
in the world. It is designated the scientific 
spirit, and is found in those who seek to wrest 
from nature her secrets which they know exist 
but with which they are not familiar. It is the 
reverse of the spirit of the ancient world in which 


THE CLERGYMAN 109 


Socrates held that certainty was attainable in 
morality but only uncertainty could be discerned 
in nature. The scientist has extended his ob- 
servations until now the facts of life in psy- 
chology and sociology are being treated in the 
same careful, discriminating way. It does not 
follow that because a man deals in a scientific 
manner with one group of facts he will treat the 
problem of morality in the same thoughtful 
manner. In fact, many men who have developed 
the scientific attitude refuse to apply it in the 
realms of morals and religion. Yet there is a 
core in this method of procedure which is in- 
valuable for religion: that is, the worker at- 
tempts to dismiss his peculiarities of thought, 
his preconceptions, and his prejudices in order 
that he may be in a position where the truths of 
nature can appeal to him as they are and not as 
he thinks they should be. In the particular 
sphere of his endeavor, this comes to be a quest 
for truth. He grows to love the truth, spends his 
working hours in seeking to discover it and 
honors those men in his calling who extend its 
borders. He acquires a healthy dislike of all 
careless and slipshod thinking and is impatient 
and even disgusted with sham. Religion is in- 
finitely more important than any department of 


110 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


nature study, sociology, or psychology, no mat- 
ter how much they may be able to contribute to 
the life of man. Christ had the same open, fact- 
loving, sham-disparaging spirit in religion which 
is found in the worthy scientist in his chosen 
field of endeavor. He was more sensitive to the 
truth of God than any man has ever been to 
the truth in nature. There is a finality in Jesus’ 
words about morality and religion which is not 
found even in the most carefully written books 
of science. Scientific books are being constantly 
modified and revised but the ages have wrought 
no changes in the teaching of our Lord. From 
the first sentence of his public ministry until 
the last beautiful words spoken in the upper 
room, his words have the same uninterrupted 
force, simplicity, and charm. He is ever just. 
and kind, and the one because of the other. 
Jesus neither glossed over the cost of disciple- 
ship nor withheld the knowledge of the suffering 
it would involve. He was truthful with all in- 
quirers and he would hold no man in his service 
who would not voluntarily pay the full price of 
discipleship. With no hesitation he uncovered 
sin and revealed its awful consequences, Hell, 
with its penalties for sin, was recognized and 
men were warned to escape the wrath to come. 


THE CLERGYMAN 111 


The assumption beneath the fact of punishment 
and the eternal loss of the soul which is the ser- 
vant of sin is that such a punishment is just, that 
such a course of conduct merits such a reward. 
The fundamental truthfulness of Jesus in his 
warfare with sin appeared in the searching tests 
he applied to all those who desired to follow him 
and in the warnings he gave of the consequences 
of sin. The program of Jesus had in it a con- 
spicuous place for justice as an integral part of 
the truth of God. This essential righteousness 
was warmed and balanced by all the rare graces 
of love. Within the scope of God’s truth there 
was room for forgiveness, humility, gentleness, 
and patience, but never at the expense of 
righteousness. God’s truth does not contradict 
itself. The One who realized in his life the de- 
mands made upon him by the law of Moses had 
also every grace and charm found in the most 
perfect friendship. The minister of Christ must 
ever be just as well as ever kind. To seek to 
achieve the one without the other is to lose 
both. He is bound to speak the truth, but al- 
ways for him, love defines its boundary. Love 
is just and love is kind. | 

No matter what may be the sacrifice a minister 
may have to make to promote the cause which he 


112 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


serves, he has a right to the conviction that his 
is the completely successful life. He is called 
upon to endure no blind and purposeless self- 
denial. Our Lord moved through the fitful 
changes in the externals of his life with the 
serene and unbroken confidence that he was 
wholly successful when all the facts of the world 
and time had been taken into consideration, 
even though his life was to end on a cross. He 
blazed the way for that essential success which 
alone can fully satisfy and although he suffered 
greatly, he knew he would be gloriously crowned. | 
So with the undershepherd of the flock of God— 
as he goes faithfully about the daily tasks which 
are the portion of his calling, he may ever have 
the deep and satisfying consciousness that eter- 
nity holds nothing more blessed for him than his ° 
present task, and that all time will show the 
wisdom of his choice and vindicate him for any 
suffering he may have to endure on its behalf. 
The clergyman ought not to allow conventional 
ideals of success to wean him from the perspec- 
tive which is his as a minister of the gospel. 


VI 


Jesus gave a balanced conception of the rela- 
tion of the inner life to the social problems of 


THE CLERGYMAN 113 


his day when he sketched in outline the history 
of the growth of the Kingdom of God. But as 
almost no lives had been prepared to establish 
the Kingdom, the emphasis had to fall on the 
personal relation of men to himself and the cor- 
rection of their crude ideas of what was the real 
nature and progress of a true, yet, at that time, 
ideal Kingdom of God. Narrow conceptions of 
God’s control of the nations through the Jews 
as public officials, and definite programs by 
which this was to be brought about had to be 
counteracted. The primary problem for our Lord 
was not to bring his followers to an appreciation 
of a new social order, but so to attach them to 
himself in a close, personal way that they would 
be able to bear the shocks to their faith which 
of necessity must occur. His first task was to 
secure a following. When this had been accom- 
plished, he set himself so to teach them and to 
live before them that in the course of time they 
might come to appreciate who he really was. 
Only after long training did it come to pass 
_ that the one most alert and sensitive to spiritual 
truth exclaimed when questioned, that he was 
“the Christ, the Son of the living God.” It was 
a gigantic undertaking to train associates to 
regard. him as the Revealer of God. Even when 


114 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


Jesus’ deity was discovered, so tremendous was 
its import that it did not become a working 
factor in their lives while he was on earth. Then 
there was added to this great task another in 
which he could not hope to succeed. When they 
had accepted him. as divine, he began at once 
to prepare them for the humiliating death that 
was not far in the future. It took his resurrec- 
tion to demonstrate to them that he could die 
on a cross and still triumph over sin and death. 
As soon as they were sure of the resurrection, 
they,.in turn, began an active campaign to 
further his work. They faced a task somewhat 
similar to that of their Lord. How could they 
establish belief in Christ as the divine Redeemer 
and attach men to him in a personal way? They 
were not concerned about the political situation , 
in the Roman Empire. They were not interested 
in the educational system of their day. The 
forms business had assumed were not scruti- 
nized. ‘The Church itself was but loosely organ- 
ized. ‘Their whole energy was bent in rescuing 
men from a sinful world and so attaching them 
to Christ that they in turn would win others 
and encourage those who also had forsaken the 
world. They but vaguely realized what it would 
mean to have a multitude of men live as Chris- 


THE CLERGYMAN 115 


tians in places of power and influence in society. 

The problem of Christianity to-day is not 
identical with that of Jesus’ day or with that of 
the days of the apostles—it is the same and 
more. Since Christianity is now a world power, 
its influence is hard to escape, and the nation 
waits to have Christianity applied in the solu- 
tion of its problems. The Church is confronted 
with a new group of interests. Insistent ques- 
tions are being asked of its ministry, for men 
want to know their Christian obligations in the 
work in which they are engaged. The apostles 
lived in the day of the vision of the new society. 
We live in the day when there are forces enough 
at our command to establish it in our great land. 
What attitude will the clergy assume toward the 
innumerable questions raised by the introduc- 
tion of Christianity into the social structure of 
society? What will be their conception of the 
relation of Christ to business, politics, labor 
unions, education, art, charity, and the many 
kinds of social reform? It seems that a broad 
position which will admit of the inclusion of all 
the normal and legitimate activities of man 
within the boundary of the Kingdom will have 
to be maintained. The old line of demarcation 
between the sacred and the secular will have to 


116 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


be largely obliterated and any wholesome phase 
of life will need to be reckoned as a legitimate 
part of the Kingdom of God. 

Since Christianity is now to dominate the 
organization of society as well as the personal 
life of the believer; any Christian business man 
may be assured that any legitimate business is 
the business of God and that it offers an avenue 
of religious service. Any teacher may feel that 
all educational effort is work within the King- 
dom, hastening the day of its establishment 
and that the forms of education are consequently 
to be modified to express more adequately the 
Christian spirit. Any man holding or seeking 
public office may honestly believe that this 
public trust is from God, to be discharged as unto 
him for the furtherance of his purposes and the | 
enlargement of his control in the world. Any 
mother may know that in ministering to the 
comfort and happiness of her household she is 
in the service of God. Any child may grow in 
knowledge and appreciation of the ordinary 
responsibilities of life, as within the Kingdom. 
All the work of all mankind, as long as it pro- 
motes human welfare, is service rendered to God. 
In the inner life there is no instinct, power of 
thought, affection, or disposition to achieve, 


THE CLERGYMAN 117 


which in itself is wrong. All may be brought 
under the control of the Spirit so as to bind the 
individual more intimately to the life of his Lord. 
In the work in which men engage in the whole 
round of their toil and recreation there is no 
part of it which may not be the direct service of 
God and which may not be viewed as religious. 
The interests of the clergyman in this century 
are all the interests of life. His message may 
include only the surrender of the will to Christ, 
attendance at the stated means of grace, and 
support of the church with gifts and prayers, but 
if so, he is proclaiming only half a gospel. There 
is an evangelism of family life, an evangelism 
of substantial and legitimate business, an evan- 
gelism of national life through pure politics, 
an evangelism of education, and an evangelism of 
recreations of which he may not be aware, or 
which he disregards, or to which he is openly 
hostile. The problems of education, legitimate 
recreations, wholesome social relations, con- 
structive business, and attractive family life are 
not to be solved in the basement of some institu- 
tional church. Such a church may throw a ray 
of light on these problems, but little more. The 
banks, stores, business offices, amusement halls, 
and Government offices will continue down town 


118 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


where they belong. It is the problem of the 
Christian to administer God’s banks, direct his 
stores, control in his business offices, supervise 
his amusement halls, sweeten his family life, and 
transform the place where he serves into a spot 
where the Kingdom comes and the divine will 
isdone. In the church services and in the Chris- 
tian life should be found the inspiration for the 
reconstruction and constant rejuvenation of the 
whole of society. 

Such is the complete gospel for this age, one 
which deals searchingly and faithfully with the 
inner life of man, one which is loyal to the great 
fundamentals of religious experience, but one 
which is also alive to the fact of the presence of 
the government of God in our midst and zealous 
to establish it and promote its interests in every 
conceivable way. 

The minister should have an_ intelligent 
interest in all kinds of human _ activities— 
patriotic, educational, business, and recreational, 
that he may help men to discern God more 
clearly and to serve him better. As Jesus’ par- 
ables mirrored the life of his time, so the minister 
should keep abreast of the phases of modern life 
that he may make it impossible for men to think 
of an activity of daily life without thinking of 


THE CLERGYMAN 119 


it in terms of God. Else how can men be in- 
spired to adopt the program of our Lord in daily 
affairs? He should so teach and live that the 
spirit and purpose and character of Jesus Christ 
shall, through him, be made to grow in the esteem 
of individual men and become controlling factors 
in community life everywhere. That he may not 
be a voice only, he should breathe deeply of the 
spirit of his Master, realize strongly the yearning 
of the divine heart for all mankind, sense God’s 
love of righteousness and hatred of iniquity, and 
put self aside in the interests of the greater good. 


Vil 


A minister is God’s steward and so is each 
member of his Church. If it is difficult for him 
to bring them to practical realization of what this 
implies, he can at least know its meaning in his 
own life. Together they are stewards of the 
infinite God and to Him they must render an 
account for the use of every talent and every 
opportunity which He has conferred on them. 
There is a substantial blessing to be derived 
from a conscientious effort to fulfill the obliga- 
tions resting on one as a steward of Jesus Christ. 
Much of the joy as well as the success of a Chris- 
tian depends upon a realization of the meaning 


120 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


of this privilege and an effort to be faithful. 

The members of a church generally give their 
pastor full credit for the spirituality which he 
possesses. His is the problem of being, in inner 
life, what his people expect him to be, or believe 
him to be. No man should accept as true a high 
estimate of himself unless close scrutiny of his 
own inner life will justify him in so doing. It is 
easy to assume unconsciously for oneself that he 
is growing rapidly in the Christian life when in 
fact his progress may be very slow. The minister 
ought not to forget that he holds his place of 
leadership because of a more virile and helpful 
Christian life than that of the average member 
of his church. In a world where the tug of con- 
ventionality is so insistent, it is not easy to retain 
the same warm enthusiasm, high resolve, and — 
hopeful, persistent effort. The strain of main- 
taining a fine Christian idealism will always be 
the special problem of the clergyman. 

The concern of the minister is to see that the 
character of Christ is formed in the lives of men. 
For this he studies, visits, prays, and preaches. 
He is successful in so far as through his minis- 
try men are won to Christ, united to him in a 
close personal way, and led to reproduce again - 
his life in the world. 


CHAPTER IV 


THE CHRISTIAN BANKER 
I 


Mi. feel that banking is rather outside 
the pale of Christian idealism. Perhaps 
the ground for such a premature judgment may 
be the unconscious recollection of the fear of the 
Saviour that riches would almost certainly cor- 
rupt life, or the recollection of his warnings 
against oppression of the weak by the moneyed 
class. It is more than likely that the belief of the 
Middle Ages that any form of interest was usury 
and forbidden by the Church still carries over 
in its influence to the present day. In this pro- 
fession, the problems focus in one man or some 
single corporate group of men. When the prob- 
lems of business are thus centralized, it is not 
surprising that the various criticisms against 
business in general are concentrated against the 
banking business. 

What is a bank? In the first place it is an 
institution where money is deposited for safe- 
keeping. There are vast sums in the banks of 
our land for no other reason than that people 
have ceased to guard personally their savings 

121 


122 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


and have left them in banks where they can be 
more carefully guarded. While it is true that 
many seek only a place where their money may 
be kept securely, it is also quite generally the 
case that depositors expect interest on money 
left at a bank, except in case of checking ac- 
counts or where the balances are to be regarded 
as the basis for future loans. A bank is an insti- 
tution where stockholders and _ depositors, 
through the medium of the bank organization 
and machinery, rent money or credit to those 
who can pay for its use and at the same time 
offer reliable security. 

Thus, paying a bank interest for the use of 
money or credit differs in no way from renting 
a farm, an apartment, a hotel, or any other 
rental investment. The landlord collects a rent ° 
for the use of the soil; the householder secures a 
stipulated sum for the privilege of occupying his 
property; the hotel proprietor charges a regular 
rate for accommodation at his hostelry; and the 
banker, like these and all other men who derive 
gain from the use of any form of property which 
they possess, rents his money and that intrusted 
to his care. Since property has a monetary value, 
it has come to be true that the one who has 
money has the equivalent of property, and that 


THE CHRISTIAN BANKER 123 


money can be rented. When this rather simple 
conception of a bank is appreciated, it then is 
evident that banking is one of the forms of busi- 
ness and that its problems are those of ordinary 
trade, plus the fact that the banker must regard 
himself as the custodian of other people’s 
property or money and must guard its use ac- 
cordingly. ‘Thus it 1s as honorable as any other 
business unless it should be that there are 
features which are especially obnoxious and in- 
herent in this form of trade. The problems of 
the banker are those found in ordinary business, 
with the exception that in his case they are 
intensified because almost no business is inde- 
pendent of close connection with banking. It 
could scarcely be otherwise since many men 
have not the capital with which to start in busi- 
ness. The extension of business generally in- 
volves the continuous use of credit and many 
consider it good business policy to be in debt, 
because it forces them to save and to work the 
harder that they may succeed. This wide ex- 
tension of credit brings the banker into close 
relations with those engaged in every form of 
business. 

The growth of our banking system paralleled 
the expansion of business in the modern world. 


124 ~ SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


Centralization in banking was the logical out- 
come of centralization in business. Only in that 
manner could credit be provided for the develop- 
ment of great corporations. The growth of 
modern banks, including the Federal Reserve 
System, has been*in response to definite needs. 
In their present form, they meet quite ade- 
quately the purpose for which they have been 
created. Various institutions have risen, such 
as trust and savings companies, and commercial 
banks have developed departments which corres- 
pond to them. As soon as these outside organiza- 
tions began to make loans on the money 
left in their keeping, they entered the field of 
commercial banking and in self-defense the 
commercial banks were compelled to operate 
departments which correspond to them. | 

A large amount of criticism has been directed 
at great banking institutions because of the 
immense resources which they control, as though 
size alone were a sufficient basis for an adverse 
judgment. However, in the United States there 
is no bank which exactly corresponds in impor- 
tance to the Bank of England. This great insti- 
tution is a privately owned bank, but after all 
largely subject to governmental control and with 
certain governmental fiscal powers. It is the 


THE CHRISTIAN BANKER 125 


hub of the English financial system. Its record 
is phenomenal. Here is the greatest bank in the 
world historically, which for generations has not 
been operated primarily for profit but for the 
purpose of stabilizing the business of the Empire. 
It has an uninterrupted record of public service, 
yet it has always been a privately owned bank. 
The board of directors of this great bank has 
maintained a standard of idealism equal to that 
found in any of the professions. The size of the 
bank has aided it in rendering the greatest pos- 
sible service. In many instances, power has been 
misused in our own banking system. Neverthe- 
less, our banking business has been on a plane 
consistent with the higher standards of business 
ethics and the Federal Reserve System is second 
to no other. 

Several agricultural papers have laid the de- 
pression in business after the World War par- 
ticularly at the door of the Federal Reserve 
banks. Unfortunately some bankers for selfish 
- reasons have encouraged such a belief. It is 
doubtful whether their criticisms have any sub- 
stantial basis. Banks have been forced to assume 
control of business in a number of cases where 
they have advanced capital. The general atti- 
tude of the bankers in almost every instance has 


126 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


been that this was an undesirable task, outside 
the ordinary channels of the banking business. 
The city bankers would much rather have been 
free to follow the practice of ordinary banking. 
Formerly, banks, like other forms of business, 
were controlled by individuals and frequently 
by families who owned a majority of the stock. 
To-day the movement is toward group owner- 
ship in which individuals are not so prominent. 
In the smaller towns there are many banks of 
the individualistic type and a few in the cities. 
But the movement, as in every other business, 
is toward a consolidation of the resources of 
many people under the control of a board of 
directors who supervise the affairs of the bank 
which is under the direct management of its 
officers. Hence, the moral problem comes to: 
be that of the integrity of the board of directors 
and of the officers. It is easy for an individual to 
fail to meet his moral responsibility as a member 
of a group. This is true in every kind of business 
where the board of directors have the controlling 
power. There is the demand for a higher type of 
morality as the relations in business are becom- 
ing increasingly impersonal. 


THE CHRISTIAN BANKER 127 





If 


It is the daily task of the banker to pass judg- 
ment on the value of securities offered as a basis 
for credit. No transactions are scrutinized with 
such care as those involving the transfer of 
money. The best endeavors of men are directed 
toward the determination of those policies which 
will secure profit and prevent loss. Therefore, 
the money judgments of men are generally more 
sensitive than any others that they might form. 
This should not surprise us, for fine discrimina- 
tions of values are made only when the mind has 
received long training in any given field of en- 
deavor. Systems of values grow with the strain 
and sweat which accompany alert and prolonged 
effort. In no other phase of life do men struggle 
so hard to advance as in business. The fact that 
a multitude of men are engaged in business 
makes their efforts nothing less than a world- 
wide contest. There can be only one result as 
far as efficiency is concerned. It will mean that 
every business talent will be developed to the 
fullest possible extent. All the plans that human 
ingenuity can devise will be tried with the aim 
of securing profit. The classes of lawyers or 
doctors or teachers by the nature of their work 
will be small in number. These classes will 


128 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


always lack the stimulus which is found where 
numberless people are striving for supremacy in 
the same field of human endeavor. A process of 
selection which is world-wide in its scope and 
very exacting in its demands will almost invari- 
ably produce men.of prodigious skill and power 
who are able to dominate and control business 
of national and international scope. 

The banker is the individual whose finger is 
on the pulse of every business endeavor. He is 
the superlative product of almost endless genera- 
tions of struggling and aspiring human beings 
who have sought to promote their welfare by 
some form of trade. His business is so related 
to the whole world of trade that the best bal- 
anced judgments of that which will make for 
business advancement are held by bankers. A | 
great business may have almost endless ramifica- 
tions, and slight changes in most unsuspected 
places may advance or hinder it. But the busi- 
ness which judges of the value of all business is 
banking. It searches out the points of strength 
and weakness in every kind of commercial 
endeavor. A bank is the place where the total 
commercial possibilities of a community are- 
carefully scrutinized and quite accurately valued. 
And this searching analysis takes place under 


THE CHRISTIAN BANKER 129 


one of the most compelling motives which ac- 
centuates human endeavor, that of self-pre- 
servation. In the struggle for survival in the 
business world, the banker becomes aware of 
that procedure which will make for business 
stability and which will promote the mutual 
welfare of all parties concerned. 

Now almost all the interests of life are con- 
nected with money. Society has valued almost 
every form of human effort and has given it a 
commercial rating, either directly or indirectly. 
When the possessions of men assume the form 
of property, then, because they are tangible, 
they have value and may readily be subject to 
examination and serve as a basis for some sort 
of credit. The banker is trained to judge quickly 
as to the merits of any business in which men 
may be engaged so that he may accommodate 
his customers and at the same time avoid any 
loss. 

With competition as keen as it is to-day, the 
banker is forced to take careful account of all 
the factors that bear on the security of a loan. 
The considerations that weigh most heavily in 
the determination of the amount of the loan are: 
The borrower’s proportion of assets to liabilities, 
the liquidity of his assets, the security offered, 


130 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


the character of the applicant, and his business 
ability. There are many bankers who would not 
advance an amount of any consequence, even 
though the security were excellent, if the moral 
risk were questionable. There are so many 
loopholes in law that they do not care to become 
involved in a transaction the outcome of which 
may lead to litigation. Men can generally 
secure at banks all the money which they can 
use with safety. Many times they are able to 
borrow more than is to their own advantage. 
When it is granted that the major premise of 
the teaching of Jesus is to promote human wel- 
fare in all personal and social relations, it follows 
that so far as banking has accomplished this it 
has performed a religious service. When the 
boundary of religion is viewed as wide enough to ' 
include the main interests of all lives, then, in 
the promotion of legitimate business, the banker 
may work with the conviction that the thing 
which he is to do with all his might is the work 
which is at hand. In so far as the banker is con- 
scious that he serves a class to the exclusion of 
the welfare of the men who are not of his own 
group, he is hostile to the basic principle of the 
teaching of Jesus. If he is not willing to strive 
to create within his group a sentiment which will 


THE CHRISTIAN BANKER 131 


aid it to act with the welfare of all in view, then 
he is disloyal to the program of Christ. The 
banking business is regulated by law and fortified 
by ideals of integrity. It is entirely possible for 
the banker who is a sincere seeker after truth to 
assent to the program of Jesus for men in their 
human relations. The machinery of his business 
need not be appreciably altered. The ideals 
within the heart may have to be changed. The 
effort that may be required to change the course 
of a life should not be minimized. To succeed 
will require nothing less than the experience of 
Christ as a personal Saviour. 


It 


There might be some justification for aloofness 
from religious matters if no connection existed 
between religion and morality. That which lifts 
the God of Christians far above any of the 
deities that men have served is first of all the per- 
fection of the moral character of God. The 
belief that God is a Spirit, who is infinite in 
wisdom, justice, goodness, holiness, and truth is 
fundamental in our conception of him. When 
Christ is contemplated, who.on his own authority 
and by his life, words, and acts revealed God, 
there is the same realization of his moral perfec- 


132 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


tion as that of God whom he represents. Those 
who like to do wrong, letting evil draw them like 
a car coupling, have little to say about Christ, 
for they realize that he utterly condemns their 
way of living. Those who treasure virtue and 
seek moral integrity are immediately attracted 
to Christ and in the course of time they discern 
that love can be maintained only by an un- 
divided allegiance to him. Jesus’ message to the 
world had to do with the moral life of men. He 
gave no definite teaching about art or science, 
but he did draw the finest of moral distinctions 
and stands ready to-day to encourage every 
worthy effort to achieve character. 

No form of business can be divorced from the 


character of those who conduct it, and this is | 


particularly true of banking. It may be that the 
innate forms which the banking business has 
assumed may have been due to the necessities of 
business, but an institution wins confidence when 
the public feels that the officers are men of 
integrity. Now integrity is not something which 
is a part of the machinery of a bank, but some- 
thing which depends upon the personal life of its 
officials. Confidence in a bank rests upon the 
character of its officials and upon its resources. 
But the former is as important, or even more so, 


OQ ee ae a oe 


THE CHRISTIAN BANKER 133 


than the latter. Let there be any evident taint 
of dishonesty in those in charge of a bank and 
confidence is destroyed. A bank of smali re- 
sources whose officials are capable and honest is 
almost sure of success; but where the officers of 
a bank are known to be dishonorable, failure is 
certain. It has been said that no prayer is long 
enough to save from business disaster the man 
who uses short weights. It can more certainly 
be predicted that the banker who is not scrupu- 
lously honest will find that he is shunned by the 
mass of men who, as is well known, want to 
transact business with a banker of thorough 
reliability. It is true that many men without 
religion appear to achieve trustworthiness in 
many matters. But this does not take into con- 
sideration the part which has been played by 
religion in formulating our present ideals of 
honorable dealing, and it neglects the fact that 
the tone of modern trade at its best has been 
decidedly influenced by Christianity. Possibly 
the unbeliever who is trustworthy has been in a 
large measure controlled by ideals of whose 
source he may not be definitely aware. But 
when the matter is stated in another way, the 
obligation of assuming the responsibility of 
Christian service is not easy to escape. Has the 


134 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


unchristian banker who is trustworthy in finan- 
cial matters been as strong and reliable without 
the aid of Christianity as he might have been 
had he sought to live as a worthy disciple of our 
Lord? Most men would assert that probably 
they would have been better men had they been 
Christians, and in case a few do not concur with 
this large majority, they do not stand in a posi- 
tion which permits of a conclusive disagreement. 
The man who has not tried Christianity cannot 
possibly be a competent judge of its worth. If 
it can be discerned that men are more sensitive 
to moral distinctions and more faithful in meet- 
ing moral obligations when active in Christian 
service than when lax and indifferent to the vows 
that may have been assumed, then the value of 
Christianity for the moral life has been demon- 
strated through an experience of its value and 
meaning. 

The fundamental virtue of the banker is 
honesty. Naturally the practice of honesty 
comes to be almost a religion with many in the 
banking business. Are they not trustees of the 
savings of those who have committed the earn- 
ings of a lifetime to them for safe-keeping? The 
volume of business for which they are responsible 
is far beyond their capital stock and surplus, and 


THE CHRISTIAN BANKER tap 


this is only possible because of the confidence 
which the depositors have in their honesty. 
Many a banker has proved for himself that the 
reading of the Bible stimulates a love of justice 
and equity, that it has been easier for him to deal 
honorably because of his religious faith, and 
finally, that many have been kept from taking 
advantage of the necessities of others because the 
Golden Rule has been a working principle in their 
daily life. Ofttimes when character would not 
have been able to bear the strain of temptations 
to which it has been subjected, the service of 
Christ has so transformed it that theft and the 
financial ruin of many which would accompany 
it have been prevented. 

It is known that the boundary between good 
and evil in any character is hard to locate, and 
‘only the strain of the concrete testings of life 
reveals the real man to the man himself. It is 
much easier to understand how one will act after 
the trial has proved the possession of inner 
integrity than it is before one is assailed by 
temptation. When strongly tested, the man who 
has felt most sure of himself may be appalled 
by his nearness to a course of conduct which 
could result only in disaster; while those who 
have feared that they might not be able to 


136 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


endure have often been surprised at their 
strength. The ways of a man’s heart are far 
from fully known to him, and he may be in dire 
need of help at times when he feels himself most 
secure. The confession of sins with true peni- 
tence for unworthy motives and firm resolve to 
live a better life can only result in the strengthen- 
ing of character. 

It is reasonable to believe that the person who 
in his daily walk is acquiring habits of virtue by 
the careful cultivation of the moral and religious 
life will find himself not unprepared, while his 
less conscientious associates falter under trial. 
The banker grows into an appreciation of the 
value of honesty in his profession. It is not some- 
thing suddenly revealed to him. With the pass- 
ing of years, it becomes more and more evident | 
to him that honesty is not only the best policy 
but has worth in itself in the pleasure which ac- 
companies a well-regulated life. That character 
is something acquired only by painstaking and 
persistent effort is very evident. It becomes 
reasonable to suppose that Christ can be the 
best guide in character-building since the world 
consents to the fact that of all men he had the 
most perfect character. 

Certainly it could not be charged that religion 


THE CHRISTIAN BANKER 137 


makes for immorality. It might be said that it 
makes no difference in aman’s business reliability. 
Yet this can be seriously and successfully ques- 
tioned. It is a well-known fact that communities 
that discard all religious observance soon run 
down at the heels morally. People of character 
do not care to move into a community which has 
tabooed churches, for they feel that the general 
influence there would be detrimental in the 
extreme. And their fears are found to be well 
grounded when a place is visited which has been 
without religious services over a long period of 
time. It reduces itself to a test of the fruits of 
irreligion, and the most pronounced is a blunting 
of the moral sense and frequently an abandon- 
ment to sensual pleasures. The facts warrant 
the supposition that the relation between religion 
and morals is not neutral or indifferent. When 
churches are well supported by the people of a 
community, a helpful public spirit is developed 
and there is a fraternal feeling which would 
otherwise be lacking; educational interests are 
fostered, and there are sharp and decisive reac- 
tions against those practices which offend the 
moral sense. These statements can all be sub- 
mitted to the test of facts. The facts are such 
that they are open to the scrutiny of the one who 


138 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 





will investigate, and they offer a real basis for a 
formulation of a well-founded conclusion. 

The vice president of a great trust company 
suggests how he feels about the absolute neces- 
sity of moral integrity in both the banker and 
the customer, and the aid which religion can be 
to the Christian employee, when he says: “The 
banking business is largely a matter of faith in 
men and trust in the integrity of the officials who 
manage it, on the one hand, and of the individuals 
to whom it lends its funds, on the other. From 
a purely business standpoint alone, it would 
seem that the successful banker must be con- 
scientious, honest, and honorable in his dealings 
if for no other reason than to succeed. I am 
strongly of the opinion that business ethics 
to-day are on a higher plane than they have ever 
been and that the enormous development of 
commerce has been made possible only by the 
higher standard of business men of to-day. 

“{T might add further that an applicant for a 
position with this company has a big asset in his 
favor if he lives a consistent Christian life.” 
And it could well be added that the banker 
has a big asset in his favor, so far as his cus- 
tomers are concerned, if he lives a consistent 
Christian life. 


THE CHRISTIAN BANKER 139 


IV 


There are temptations which assail the banker 
that are rather emphasized in his profession. 
There is the subtle temptation to take advantage 
of the necessities of others. It is very easy to 
argue to oneself that, since another may have to 
secure a loan because he is in dire need, he should 
be charged a fraction more than the regular 
interest rate. Although the security offered 
might be satisfactory and the moral risk excel- 
lent, the banker might lessen the amount of the 
loan which was desired so that the customer 
would not have quite the amount of money he 
actually needed. ‘There was probably some 
sround for the complaints made by many 
farmers, prior to the time when the Government 
became a competitor with regular banks for farm 
loans, in the oft-repeated charge that mortgage 
bankers were taking advantage of their neces- 
sities and were hampering them in legitimate 
business. At least, many of them received a 
somewhat different treatment at the hands of 
certain mortgage bankers after the Government 
became a sharp competitor for their business. 
Illustrations could be multiplied where an exces- 
sive desire for profit has lessened the ability of 
bankers to achieve real success and dwarfed 


140 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


them in their citizenship. The words of a 
prominent banker are pertinent when in our 
correspondence he wrote, “I have held and do 
hold, that the application of the Golden Rule to 
business is thoroughly practical and the only 
safe plan for any business or professional man to 
follow.” Purely from the angle of good business 
policy, it is a poor plan to take advantage of any 
man who, for the time being, is not able to help 
himself. An unfair advantage will rankle in his 
heart and the confidence which otherwise would 
have been established will have been destroyed. 
Honesty is in truth the best policy, and the type 
of honesty which is good policy in business is 
very close to the finest kind of Christian con- 
sideration. 

The income of a bank is greatly increased by ° 
its depositors who have money as a checking 
account or who are holding money in the bank, 
awaiting the opportunity to invest it. It is to 
the advantage of the bank to have, through the 
accumulated savings of many, a large amount 
of their ready money. The available cash of 
many accumulates until a great sum of money 
is ‘on hand for the purpose of making loans. It. 
is not at all probable that the depositors will 
withdraw more than a small portion of this fund 


THE CHRISTIAN BANKER 141 


at any one time, and if such should be the case, 
it can generally be anticipated except when there 
is a panic, and even for the latter the banker is 
now protected through the Federal Reserve 
System. There is this very sharp temptation to 
which some bankers succumb, namely, to take 
advantage of the weakness or ignorance of others 
when they have funds in the bank which they 
desire to invest, in order that their money may 
remain on deposit and be used by the bank for 
its own profit. 

A few concrete illustrations will make this 
more readily understood. A widow, immedi- 
ately after her husband’s death, deposited a sum 
of about ten thousand dollars with a certain 
banker. The widow consulted with him about 
how to invest the money and he advised a farm 
loan, at the same time volunteering to place the 
money for her. The money remained in the bank 
for over four months with no interest paid to the 
woman for its use and no real effort was made 
to invest the money. During that time, she was 
without an income from her money; she was in 
need and both herself and her children suffered 
because there was no income from the property. 
Doubtless, in the course of time, her banker 
would have obtained for her farm loans that 


142 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


were secure, but what he deliberately concealed 
from her was the fact he could have invested her 
money for her at once where it would have been 
secured by farm mortgages that were absolutely 
safe as investments. To his own eyes his conduct 
might seem highly commendable when he con- 
sidered the treatment which widows often re- 
ceive at the hands of others. No doubt her funds 
were secure in his bank and would be safely 
invested in the course of time. But that course 
of time carried with it the equivalent of a com- 
mission in interest deferred, and, what was more 
reprehensible, there was studied deception and 
a mature plan to take advantage of her igno- 
rance. It is one thing to assume no responsibility 
for the investment of funds which may be placed 
in a bank for safe-keeping, but it is an entirely 
different matter to follow a carefully formulated 
plan which involves deception for the sake of 
profit. Of course no reputable banker would 
engage in such a practice. The written comment 
concerning this incident by the banker con- 
sidered by his colleagues the foremost banker in 
our country modifies an impression that other- 
wise might not be true to fact: “It is to the 
credit of bankers that such cases as the fore- 
going are far less frequent now than in the past. 


THE CHRISTIAN BANKER 143 


Even in years gone by the banker who deliber- 
ately and selfishly took undue advantage of 
those with whom he dealt was the exception. 
The ethics of banking have improved and are 
improving with the advancement of civilization 
and the broader and more general acceptance 
and practice of the principles of Christianity.” 

The man who handles the money of others 
should be conservative in his actions. Bankers 
are more careful in their business transactions 
than any other group of men. The fact that 
they handle the funds of others accounts in part 
for their conservatism. They abhor speculation, 
for it usually ends in loss and they promote only 
those forms of business in which the security is 
almost sure to prove adequate. It is a great and 
worthy service in which they are engaged. To 
be the sponsor of all legitimate business from 
which the element of undue speculation has been 
eliminated is a far-reaching and tremendously 
constructive service. To promote one form of 
business within a single country is generally be- 
yond the power and scope of one man. But 
when we try to think of business in its totality, 
then it is utterly impossible for the mind to 
comprehend the magnitude of what is meant, 
except in the most fragmentary way. It is like 


144 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


trying to appreciate God’s universe by some of 
the measures with which we are familiar, such 
as spans, rods, or even miles. 

In every civilized country 1t may be known 
that bankers are men who have spent their lives 
in formulating a true appreciation of what con- 
stitutes legitimate business endeavor and that 
they stand ready to promote any business to the 
limit of mutual business responsibility and per- 
haps at times, even slightly beyond that limit. 
In no other kind of business, in its totality, is 
there displayed the same absolute honesty, per- 
spicacity, and comprehensive knowledge of the 
fundamental principles of business. A cross sec- 
tion of other forms of business at any time will 
show, on the one hand, many who are conserva- 
tive far beyond the necessity of security and, on ' 
the other hand, a large number who are specu- 
lators, taking unreasonable risks and hoping that 
by chance they may be able to advance their 
financial interests. he banking business at any 
time will show a uniformity of good judgment 
and careful aggressiveness not found in an equal 
number of men in any other calling. It is a great 
satisfaction to be one of that class who stand for 
substantial achievements and solid advance- 
ments in the business world. The group in 


THE CHRISTIAN BANKER 145 


society to which a man belongs has much to do 
with fashioning his character. There is a pro- 
fessional pride which goes with every thoroughly 
organized calling which is of incalculable benefit 
to its members. There is a rugged honesty and 
social helpfulness in the banking business which 
are mighty aids in fashioning its members into 
thoroughly reliable and constructive builders of 
the business of the world. The banker has the 
satisfaction of knowing that he is one of a great 
company of useful men. Many of his predeces- 
sors have wrought for the advancement of 
society; his colleagues are now supporting and 
furthering almost every legitimate human en- 
deavor; and his successors will continue the pro- 
gram which experience has proved is in the main 
best suited to advance the welfare of all. 

To dip into particulars with an enumeration 
of the concrete instances of the interests pro- 
moted by banking would be to make a catalogue 
of human endeavors. Besides, when particulars 
are mentioned, there are minds that feel they 
have been contaminated. It is only with great 
difficulty that they are able to discern the glory 
of concrete things, for the particulars have to 
them the effect of being sordid. Needless to say, 
it is not possible for such individuals to have a 


146 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


gripping interest in the real facts of life if, when- 
ever they touch them, they feel in some way 
humiliated. The banker deals with very definite 
things: this particular piece of land, that store 
building, this mile of pavement, that block of 
school bonds, this grain elevator, and that bunch 
of cattle. The banker revels in facts; and, if he 
will, he may discern that general ideals get body, 
and that assurance is gained of the worth of 
ideals as he sees them work and as he witnesses 
their particular behavior when subjected to the 
trial of specific instances. 

It is not always easy to distinguish between 
the speculative tendencies and the progressive 
business ideals of the constituents of the bank. 
This is more difficult for the older men in the 
banking business than it is for the younger men. | 
The tone of business in our generation may 
differ from that of the preceding generation. It 
is only natural that the policies of youth and 
middle age should be adhered to in old age. No 
criticism could be brought against such a pro- 
cedure if the world made no progress and if the 
conditions did not change. But nothing is more 
evident than the tremendous development in 
industrialism in the last generation. It has pro- 
duced men of infinitely greater executive ability 


THE CHRISTIAN BANKER 147 


than have existed before. Fifty years ago it was 
almost impossible to conceive of a man having 
in his control the interests represented by 
combinations now existing in steel or oil or rail- 
roads. These great aggregations of capital re- 
quire men of the rarest business ability to direct 
them and they make demands on bankers to see 
things in the large in ways to which they have 
not been accustomed. It is felt that business 
practice to-day is on a much higher plane than 
at any other time in our national life. Perhaps 
the greatest single cause of this advancement 
has been the unprecedented expansion in busi- 
ness with the subsequent demand for big men 
to handle its affairs. The modern banker must 
take account of the social and moral progress 
made in our day if he is to deal in equity with 
his customers. These words from a prominent 
banker suggest that there is a better spirit than 
formerly in the business world: “The funda- 
mental moral problem of the banking business 
is, of course, honesty. In my experience of nearly 
twenty years, [ am glad to say that I find the 
honesty of the individuals and institutions is on 
a higher plane than it used to be; men do not take 
advantage of each other as much as formerly, and 
are more careful in their obligations.” 


148 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


V 


There are many special opportunities for help- 
fulness in a bank. Men are not always clear in 
their own minds as to what sums they desire to 
borrow and often they are not sure that they 
should enter upon acertain undertaking. Bankers 
frequently are asked what they think of a con- 
templated business venture, and out of a broad 
experience they may advise in a very profitable 
way. Many times they can keep men from 
assuming burdens under which in all probability 
they would fail. They can often so counsel that 
a young man in a growing business may go from 
success to success. Then there is the satisfaction 
of having aided in the development of a strong 
and forceful business man. The weak make a 
special appeal to the friendliness of the banker. ' 
The Old Testament does not neglect to repeat 
that God will show favor to those who are good 
to widows and orphans. About the most helpless 
person in the world is a widow who has given of 
her strength and thought to the rearing of a 
family and the providing of a home for all its 
members. Her husband frequently has assumed 
every business care, and upon his death she finds 
herself utterly unfit to shoulder any business 
responsibility. She may not even know that a 


THE CHRISTIAN BANKER 149 


check made out to her should be endorsed when 
presented at the bank. It is pitiful and tragic 
when she has had absolutely no business train- 
ing. Society takes advantage of her weakness in 
many ways. Frequently it seems as though 
human vultures were hovering over widows, bent 
on their destruction. With the pittance that may 
be left her, she frequently turns to the banker 
for counsel. He is equipped to keep funds in 
safety and he has the ability to place money in 
the form of loans where the investment is secure 
and the interest reasonable. [f he is a man of a 
kind heart and is really trying to serve others 
when the opportunity offers, he can do no nobler 
act of service to society than to minister to 
widows and orphans in their helplessness and 
their affliction. The Saviour of men was par- 
ticularly tender toward the helpless and the 
weak. It is a mark of one possessing his spirit to 
take advantage of opportunities to aid those 
who are in distress. 

The banker builds himself into the local 
interests of his community. His business pros- 
pers as he promotes the interests of those who 
are in his community. In time he comes to know 
the failings and weakness of ordinary human 
nature as well as the hidden worth of many 


150 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


lives. The only way in which we are able to help 
our fellow men is to be related to them in these 
intimate ways. When their interest becomes 
ours, then they are near enough to be really, 
influenced by our opinions and our deeds. 

The banker has to guard himself against being 
warped by the narrowness, dishonesty, and un- 
faithfulness around him. He deals with many 
who have no interest in religion and who are 
watching him closely to see if his religion shows 
in any way in his conduct. There is one class 
of men with whom he has great influence and 
they are the hardest of any group of men to 
touch with religious truth. They are men of real 
business ability, and hence of means, who have 
made gold their god. With fanatical zeal they 
have bent their energies to the accumulation of » 
money. They respect only those able to make 
money or those who have it. The banker is a 
man who is able to accumulate money. He 
generally possesses money. He is a successful 
business man and is in daily contact with those 
who prosper in business ways. Men who worship 
money are generally keen judges of character, 
and if the banker lives before them, keeping his 
institution in a sound and liquid condition as a 
means of helpfulness to others, not grasping but 


THE CHRISTIAN BANKER ou 


receiving a fair interest for service rendered, he 
exerts a real influence for good on those greedy 
and money-intoxicated customers. He may be 
the only man in the community who is able to 
reach them in a religious way, and that by his 
deeds more than by his words. If his deeds are 
not equal to or better than his words, they will 
sneer at the futility of all religion and cite him 
as an example of its worthlessness. The teaching 
is that there should be hope for all and while, 
humanly -speaking, it may often seem that cer- 
tain men are not to be influenced by the ordinary 
religious services of a community, yet there is 
always the possibility that the daily walk of 
some humble servant of the Saviour may recall 
to them the beauty and power and comfort that 
exists in true religion. 


VI 


It might be thought that forgiveness would 
not need to play any conspicuous part in the life 
of the banker. Yet in the memory of this genera- 
tion there have probably been at least two times 
when they have been obliged to ask practically 
all of their customers to forgive them their debts. 
They have asked the public in times of financial 
stress not to draw any considerable amount out 


152 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


of the banks, even though they held the legal 
right to do so. The public has treated them with 
consideration at such times. The banker has 
been indebted to practically every older de- 
positor for consideration shown in times of 
financial strain, when to have withdrawn sums 
of money of any consequence would have crip- 
pled or perhaps even ruined the bank. It might 
be well for some bankers to recall this kindness 
shown by the public when customers who are 
worthy desire an extension of credit at a time of 
real need. They themselves were forgiven much 
and it becomes them in the hour of another’s 
adversity to remember the many debts that for 
the time were forgiven them. 

An eminent banker commenting on the pre- 
ceding paragraph has revealed the need of 
mutual consideration in difficult situations and 
corrected the one-sidedness of its views when he 
writes as he has been taught by experience: 
“This paragraph goes too far. The position of 
the banks during times of panic is incorrectly 
stated. The banks did not ask ‘practically all of 
their customers to forgive them their debts.’ 
The banks were willing to and did forgive their 
debtors quite as much as their debtors forgave 
them. You overlook the fact that the heaviest 


THE CHRISTIAN BANKER 153 


bank depositors are also as a rule the heaviest 
bank borrowers. The commercial banks could 
have paid off most of their deposit debtors by 
turning back to them their own obligations for 
money borrowed. The savings banks took ad- 
vantage of the terms on which their savings 
deposits were received, that is, subject to sixty 
days’ notice of withdrawal. Panics are times 
when mutual forbearance between the banks and 
their customers is essential. At such times 
customers have quite as great reason for asking 
the banks to forgive them their debts as the 
banks have to ask their customers to forgive 
them theirs. 

“Borrowers, worthy of credit, have no occasion 
to remind bankers of the kindness shown them 
by their depositors during panics. If they are 
worthy of credit the bankers would be very glad 
to grant it; that is the banker’s business—he is 
looking for just such customers. The banker 
however, acts in a judiciary capacity and should 
never let his sympathy for individual adversity 
be affected by remembrance of how the bank was 
treated by the public during a panic. Each bor- 
rower must stand on his own feet and his obliga- 
tion for a loan must be considered on his indi- 
vidual merits. Worthy borrowers confer as 


154 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


great a favor on the bank when they borrow its 
money and pay interest on it as the bank confers 
on them by letting them have the money. The 
transaction is purely one of mutual benefit 
equally shared on both sides of it. 

‘During one of the panics, | asked a customer 
to pay a matured loan and on his declining to do 
so, I requested him to sell some of the collateral 
securities we held for the debt. His answer was: 
“You will have to sell them yourself if they must 
be sold; by so doing you will become guilty of 
financial murder, but you cannot expect me to 
commit financial suicide.’ The securities could 
not then be sold except at a terrible sacrifice. 
Neither murder nor suicide took place, the loan 
was carried through the panic, and both the 
borrower and the bank survived; both came out. 
financially. sound and are to-day in excellent 
credit.” 

Vil 

The recent war has strengthened the impulse 
to think internationally. It is evident that 
economic welfare is dependent upon a sound 
financial policy throughout the world. Modern 
states were rather isolated in their development. 
Hence, the economic problems were largely of a 
national character and within the separate 


THE CHRISTIAN BANKER 155 


states. Now that the nations are closely de- 
pendent upon one another those who plan the 
economic program of any nation must think in 
terms of humanity if they desire to avoid strife. 
The nation which cannot adjust itself to the fact 
that it has a place in a world order will promote 
contention. [If we are to learn anything from the 
late war it should be that suspicion, hatred, and 
selfishness must be displaced by good will in 
which the welfare of all is sought as the means 
of safety for each one. Since bankers represent 
the united financial strength of any nation, a 
program of codperation among bankers which is 
international in scope has become a_ business 
necessity. The exact form which the effort 
assumes is immaterial; that it should be at- 
tempted is obvious. 

Bankers can reckon with Jesus as the only 
reconstructive power able to lead mankind into 
a fraternity of nations, or they can disregard him 
and fortify the economic situation in each nation 
as best they can in preparation for other wars. 
Allegiance to Jesus has become an economic 
necessity. 


CHAPTER V 


THE CHRISTIAN EDITOR 
I 


F the editor is to be a recorder of events of 

public interest and an interpreter of the 
changes which occur in society, he must have 
at least a partly formed philosophy of the nature 
of the world whose happenings he chronicles. 
The query, “What is truth?” is very modern as 
well as exceedingly ancient. The answer given 
will finally depend upon what one conceives to 
be the nature of reality. 

Men have divided into two groups as they 
have attempted to answer this question. On the 
one hand, they have said there is such a thing 
as absolute truth, and they have hoped and 
believed that it could be known. On the other 
hand, they have held that truth is more or less 
ready-made and is created, in fact, by the one 
who really tries to discover it. The idea that 
truth is some petrified thing with a very ancient 
history, already complete in itself, and that it is 
to be dug out of the débris of ancient civilization, 
is sharply questioned in our day. Truth has a 
way of appearing as the necessary thing that 

156 


THE CHRISTIAN EDITOR 157 


should be done in our present life. It wraps 
itself about us in our practical needs. It fur- 
nishes the connections without which we would 
be unable to advance. It has that elusive 
quality which we describe as suggestive. It 
carries that solid impact made by the axioms of 
mathematics. It guides us near to that which 
seems final and finished in thought only to dis- 
close to us that farther on we may draw nearer 
to that which is real. Always it supplies some 
of our multifarious needs and lures us into un- 
explored realms where marvelous vistas of virgin 
fields lie before us. To suggest to many that 
truth is something which grows is to give them 
a severe nervous shock. In their scheme of 
things, it has become so beautifully finished, so 
comprehensively grasped, so aristocratically es- 
tablished, that the discovery that it may be 
modified and enlarged, makes them mentally 
dizzy and confused. To others, the plasticity of 
truth offers a challenge because it can be modi- 
fied by grafting on here and lopping off there 
until it is more satisfactory and is not so stunted 
by sapping growths. The possibility of a better 
world, even though the truth must take chances 
of not always developing in the most satis- 
factory way, is always a sufficient compensation 


158 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


for the loss of one too formal and rigid with out- 
worn conventions. A conservation of values 
which have come to us out of the past is all that 
we may reasonably expect in a growing world. 
Truth gathers itself about a viewpoint. The 
carpenter squints along the edge of a board and 
if it is straight he calls it true. The mechanic 
adjusts a wheel until its motion is even, and 
then says it runs true. So we may say without 
disparagement of any of these dignified and even 
austere subjects, that there may be a religious, 
economic, political, evolutionary, or esthetic 
approach to the same facts, depending on the 
way in which the subject matter is viewed. 
While truth may have this pliability for restless 
and inquisitive souls, it is none the less to be 
recognized that there are many definite re- 
straints upon it because of things which are self- 
evident, and also on account of the products of 
an extensive experience which set very definite 
boundaries to the liberties that may be taken 
with it. 

Grant the editor the wide margin of freedom 
that is consistent with a liberal view of truth, 
and still for him there is penty of room for moral 
heroism, devotion, and a genuine service. The 
core of commonly accepted responsibility is: 


THE CHRISTIAN EDITOR 159 


sufficient to demand the full use of all his talents. 
Should he be a creative spirit in furthering 
human welfare, a tolerance founded on the per- 
spective of history will be a great aid to him in 
all his constructive endeavor. However, the 
moral problem of the editor is much simpler than 
any refinement concerning the nature of truth 
in the abstract would suggest. His moral 
problem is very humble. Will he refuse to lie 
when he knows clearly that he should not? Will 
he print the obvious truth? Will he state the 
facts concerning those events which are of 
public interest, when to do so would promote 
public welfare? Will he be honest in the ordinary 
meaning of that term? 

The more conscientious editors feel that at all 
times and under all circumstances they should 
be blind to everything but the truth. Each pro- 
fession rests on some fundamental virtue. Thus, 
the fundamental virtue of the soldier would be 
courage. In journalism the essential virtue is 
_truth-telling, just as with the banker the primary 
virtue is honesty. Cowardice will disorganize an 
army and hypocrisy will eat in a church like a 
cancer. Likewise, failure to print the truth 
destroys the moral value of a newspaper whether 
it is a weekly or daily sheet. This does not mean, 


160 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


of course, that occasional lapses from the truth 
because of the inaccuracy of some reporter, or 
even the careless perversion of some news, is 
necessarily fatal to its usefulness, but it does 
mean that habitual untrustworthiness renders it 
a moral menace to the community. Those papers 
which thrive financially by means of the perver- 
sion of the truth are a moral menace, as are 
unjust judges or corrupt physicians or dishonest 
bankers. In so far as the editor fails to endeavor 
earnestly to print the truth, he becomes a force 
working for the disintegration of the highest 
ideals that have been developed within his 
calling. 

The practical problem which confronts the 
editor is whether or not he will be a truthful 
man. It is the problem of moral faithfulness not 
to some obscure or even questionable standard, 
but to one that is generally accepted as right and 
worthy by practically all his colleagues. The 
great decision which has to be made is whether 
or not he will steadfastly serve the truth, or 
whether he will be controlled by temporary 
expediency or even by the firmly established 
forces of evil. The great decision resolves itself 
into a test of moral integrity. Will the editor 
be sincere? Will he be truthful? Will he set his 


THE CHRISTIAN EDITOR 161 


face to travel the road of truth-telling, though 
often it is rocky and uphill? Where will he be 
found when tested in the making of this momen- 
tous decision? And once he has decided to 
champion the truth, will he not be weaned from 
his high resolve by the numberless demands 
made upon him to be less than sincere and 
strictly honorable? 

The more extensive the interests of any com- 
munity, the closer it should come to an apprecia- 
tion of facts and the stronger and the more suc- 
cessful should be the efforts that are made 
within it to understand the facts. No com- 
munity can long continue to progress which does 
not have a high regard for facts. The more 
numerous the interests of any community, the 
more urgent is the need of uncolored or im- 
partial news. It has come to pass that a great 
newspaper mirrors a very important part of the 
life of the people. The details of that life should 
be depicted more and more accurately, for a 
thorough appreciation of the life of various sec-. 
tions and peoples is the only basis to be laid for 
mutual regard and the harmonizing of existing 
differences. The facts in any single event are 
the same for our western coast as they are for 
our eastern border. Facts are what they are in 


162 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


themselves, and are not subject to changes 
because of geography. The facts of a theft in 
Portland should be no different when the same 
story is reported in Galveston or Charlestown. 
The people are entitled to the facts concerning 
any event of public interest. If their information 
is accurate they may decide concerning public 
issues in such a manner as to promote public 
welfare, but if their sources of information are 
biased by selfish interests then they can only 
muddle through, no matter how earnestly a 
majority may seek to promote public welfare. 
It is no unreasonable demand that publications 
should give the facts to the public. 

Jesus had a passion for facts. For him, certain 
things were eternally true for man, and he with- 
held his approval from the sham and false con- | 
ventionality of his day. His ministry was one 
on behalf of unalterable facts of which he was 
fully aware. The faith of the apostles was 
factual, resting on two pillars: First, they knew 
Jesus personally; and second that he rose from 
the dead. No other teacher ever faced evil so 
squarely and fearlessly. One less factually in- 
clined than Jesus would have minimized the 
heinousness of evil and blurred the moral dis- 
tinctions which he gave to mankind. Thus, the 


THE CHRISTIAN EDITOR 163 


love of facts is deep-rooted in Christian teaching. 

There is the temptation for the editor to speak 
without adequate information because the read- 
ers expect instant utterance on topics of current 
interest. Since the work of journalism is neces- 
sarily hurried, it naturally follows that opinions 
are often formed without due deliberation. A 
reputation for veracity may be established by 
dealing with the more reliable news agencies, 
employing the more conscientious reporters, and 
writing on such themes as are somewhat thor- 
oughly understood, or at least are open to careful 
investigation. 

The pith of democracy is that in the long run 
the average man will do that which is fair and 
for the best interests of the group. To believe 
in the fairness of the average man, and to commit 
our interests to him with the conviction that in 
the main his judgment will be just, is to accept 
democracy as a fact rather than as a theory. 
The newspaper is the school of the people and it 
- depends upon them for its support. By believing 
finally that the judgment of the people will be 
just, the editor is only faithful to that light 
which illumines the way for all men of the same 
character and faith in democracy. The news- 
paper is so fitted to be the champion of de- 


164 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


mocracy that it is a tragedy when it becomes the 
mouthpiece of any class possessing special privi- 
leges. In such an aristocracy there is a settled 
distrust of the average man which prevents the 
existence of any real confidence between them 
and the people. The camaraderie necessary for 
the finest united effort cannot be secured. Where 
there is conviction of the fairness of the average 
man and of his willingness to support that which 
is right, there is a union which furthers trust and 
makes possible an esprit de corps that inspires the 
whole group to accomplish the things that pro- 
mote its welfare. 
II 

Is there any single newspaper suited to meet 
the needs of the American people asa whole? 
Such a publication is-hardly possible because of’ 
the vast distances between the various parts of 
the country, the diversity of the interests of the 
land, the lack of uniformity in national spirit 
and life. Where the people of a country hold the 
same ideals, observe like customs, are controlled 
by the same sentiments, and are not sharply di- 
vided in religion, education, and politics, there 
is the possibility of a paper’s fashioning and di- 
recting the thought of a whole people. in our 
sreat cities there are multitudes who cannot 


THE CHRISTIAN EDITOR 165 


read the English language, and although they 
are held together by the bonds of democracy, 
the culture of the Saxon peoples is to them a 
closed book. They have recreated the life of 
their mother countries within this land. Even 
though there were a uniformity of ideals, which 
is now lacking, the interests of the different 
sections of the land are so diverse that no single 
paper would answer for all. The interests of 
New York are not those of vast agricultural re- 
gions of the Middle West or of the mining sec- 
tions of the far West. When geographical isola- 
tion of the various parts of the country is added 
to the almost insurmountable difficulties already 
mentioned, then the possibility of the single 
great American newspaper vanishes. 

When all these diversities are noted and to 
them is added the consideration that the local 
paper represents the interests of a number of 
groups rather than the community in its totality, | 
the demand that the editor should be well in- 
formed becomes apparent. Even in a small 
town the interests of a small paper are widely 
varied. All phases of political, religious, busi- 
ness, and social life are brought to the attention 
of the editor and he is forced to value them in a 
harmful, helpful, or commonplace way. The 


166 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


business directory in the back of the telephone 
book of any city will suggest the public that is 
to be informed through the paper and the mul- 
titude of interests lying within the life of a 
municipality. 
ae LET 

The position of the ancient Greek philosopher, 
that to know the right is to do it, is hardly 
tenable because the will to accomplish the right 
is often weak; yet the editor cannot deal justly 
with the people about him unless he is intelligent. 
He should be acquainted with the facts about 
any matter which he may discuss, else he will 
not only form shallow judgments but in all 
probability will do injustice as well. The editor 
stands in need of that practical education which 
will make him conversant with at least the core 
of the main facts of life. With regard to this 
consensus of knowledge, he should have passed 
judgment upon it and assigned to the parts 
their relative worth. This is what may be meant 
by a liberal education—the system of judgments 
held as valid by the world at large. With such 
a foundation in the knowledge of the essentials 
of life, he will be saved from the blind service of 
a number of unworthy causes. This culture will 
guard him from furthering errors of government, 


THE CHRISTIAN EDITOR 167 


education, and religion and it will maintain him 
in the sane and constructive views of that fine 
common sense which is the inheritance of all 
who will acquire a liberal education. When he 
has sensed the continuity of the world’s life and 
has realized that our present life is largely con- 
trolled by the accumulated wisdom of the past, 
he will then be able to accept a worth-while 
policy which will stand the test of experience and 
enable him to be loyal to a constructive program. 

It is in religion that a man is first able to lo- 
cate the North Star of his life and the cardinal 
points indicated thereby. Religion deals with 
man’s life in its totality and makes him aware 
of his origin, his present obligations, and _ his 
destiny. What is true for him as an individual 
also holds as explanatory of the life of all man- 
kind. It might seem that religion bakes no 
bread, but it does that which is of much more 
value to men; it makes life infinitely worth- 
while by furnishing it a constructive program 
and assuring it of an altogether profitable out- 
come in which life is secure and each is to re- 
ceive the reward he has honestly won. Christ 
had almost unbounded confidence in men. He 
taught that the day would come when all would 
serve him as members of his Kingdom. Then he 


168 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


left the establishment of that Kingdom to the 
apostles and those who were to succeed them. 
Men have been marvelously trusted by the 
Christ who believed that out of their hearts and 
minds and by the labor of their hands, inspired 
and strengthened by him, the new world society 
was to become a reality. We live in a day when 
that which was a world vision of the Saviour is 
swiftly becoming a fact, when whole nations are 
discarding the trumpery of kings and when the 
sway of the people is being felt as never before. 
These movements are essentially Christian in 
spirit because they trust mankind as such. At 
first glance, it might seem that Jesus trusted 
only those whose hearts were right, but a closer 
scrutiny reveals the profound conviction that 
there would be a day when all men would be- 
come virtuous and spiritual and happy. The 
optimism of Jesus considered all the hard facts 
of life and then in spite of the strength of evil 
as it was intrenched in habits and barricaded 
behind unworthy traditions, He assumed that 
the day would come when wrong should be 
utterly banished from this fair world and only 
love should have sway. The editor needs Christ 
as the North Star of his life that he may be able 
to orient himself and that he may be truly 


THE CHRISTIAN EDITOR 169 


democratic at heart, not weakening in the con- 
viction of the final and complete triumph of 
democracy. 
IV 

Journalism as it exists to-day is of compara- 
tively recent growth. The professions of teaching 
and medicine and the calling of the clergy are 
ancient. In the latter, a moral idealism has de- 
veloped in which the obligations of the members 
are sharply defined and where the finest stand- 
ards of morality are the common working prop- 
erty of the members of these professions. There 
is no printed canon of ethics for journalism. 
There is a growing sentiment that a more posi- 
tive morality should become the recognized 
standard of all journalists. Such norms of con- 
duct have not been definitely formulated by 
journalists as a class and then generally and 
firmly accepted by them. In practice, journalists 
should be as moral as the better groups of pro- 
fessional men. In the learned professions, the 
teaching of Jesus has played a very important 
part in the formal statement of their obligations. 
It yet remains for journalism to state with clear- 
ness the ethical standards which are to be ac- 
cepted as its moral guides. When this is done, it 
is to be hoped that it will be strong in permanent 


® 


170 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


idealism. There is much in our day to cause us 
to believe that this task will be attempted and 
that it will be well done. 


V 


The editor maintains many contacts with so- 
ciety where, for money considerations or those 
of preferment or advancement, he finds that it 
would be expedient for him either to be silent or 
to pervert the truth. On the one hand, there 
may be peace, friendship, social position, and a 
more pronounced business success. On the 
other, there may be the loss of intimate friends, 
the hatred of many, financial reverses, and 
mediocrity in business success. The distinction 
is as Sharply drawn as has just been indicated. 
We have no reason to believe that a man may 
not suffer real loss as well as get gain in the 
service of righteousness. A patience is born 
when undergoing testings on behalf of virtue 
which springs from two great facts of religion: 
First, that righteousness is sure to triumph in 
the long run; and, second, that every man shall 
be rewarded according to his deeds. The editor 
who loses the capacity to discern moral dis- 
tinctions with clearness will cease to be just, 
fair, and open-minded, and will become biased 


THE CHRISTIAN EDITOR 171 


and hampered in his judgments. Then his paper 
cannot but be a detriment to the community 
which it should serve. 

The temptation to injustice in journalism may 
be reduced in part to certain definite types. 
Business houses may demand advertising of a 
type which the editor feels is not in harmony 
with the policy of a paper of established integ- 
rity. They may resent any statement about 
their methods of treating employees, or the 
manner of conducting their business, or any 
derogatory review of their conduct in social or 
political matters. They may even demand that 
advertising of a harmful nature shall be carried, 
and accompany these demands with threats of 
financial loss. Business men realize the impor- 
tance of having publications approve average 
business methods since the strong and the weak 
points of business are reflected in periodicals and 
newspapers. Any publication which seeks to 
print news impartially will be judged as hostile 
to business, and will be either purchased, de- 
stroyed, or continually fought by business men. 
Few publications can hope to survive when ad- 
vertising is withdrawn, and unless the editor 
plays the game according to the rules laid down 
by business he will be eliminated. This accounts 


172 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


for the disappearance of many really impartial 
magazines or newspapers. They have not been 
able to withstand the hostility of business for 
any length of time. The newspapers and periodi- 
cals of our country with very few exceptions are 
owned or controlled by business interests and 
the public has few sources of impartial informa- 
tion. Even the editorials are colored to suit the 
demands made by business. The reporter can 
learn to write copy which is acceptable to busi- 
ness or he will be discharged. If he is honest, 
he will be humiliated repeatedly by seeing his 
copy cut or rewritten to suit the demands of 
advertisers. That which is most repugnant in 
the situation is that many papers pose as pro- 
moters of public welfare when in all important 
matters they take their orders from business. 
They may be very altruistic concerning affairs 
in which business is not directly interested. 
Great good may be accomplished by giving 
publicity to such enterprise. However, the real 
tests of manhood in editorial work are found 
where the publication is in contact with busi- 
ness. One of the bitterest contests fought by 
intrenched interests against a periodical which 
was at that time a valiant champion of public 
welfare was when those profiting by the sale of 


THE CHRISTIAN EDITOR WG 


patent medicines attempted to restrain a weekly 
paper from exposing the methods they used and 
the evils they promoted. The religious press has 
been used extensively to advertise these medi- 
cines. In this particular, these publications 
have failed to maintain a high moral standard. 
Quack doctors and promoters of wildcat schemes 
of securing money easily are eager to use the 
newspapers as their advertising agencies to 
further their nefarious practices. 

Politicians may bring tremendous pressure to 
bear on a paper to force it to favor their policies 
in its editorials and to compel it to color its news. 
They control so many influences that to oppose 
them means financial loss, or another paper 
started by them whose policies they can con- 
trol. 

Nevertheless, there is a tendency to overstate 
the influence of big business and of politics upon 
editorial work as a whole. Since the great ma- 
jority of our newspapers are printed according 
to the judgment of the men who edit them, the 
greatest need of the American press is character 
on the part of its publishers. Newspapers are 
generally successful when they are controlled 
by upright men who own them and who give to 
the papers their time and their talent. Such 


174 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


papers are successful because they merit rec- 
ognition and are not controlled by political 
interests or outside business influences. 


Vi 


It is important to know what not to publish 
as well as what to print. Scarcely a day passes 
without editors being asked to print some article 
which would wound some heart or cause the 
tongue of gossip to wag. Many items should be 
omitted because their publication would cause 
unnecessary and useless suffering since, at the 
most, only a very few really may be concerned. 
The possession of the qualities of discernment 
and kindness are essential. If the editor is gov- 
erned by pure motives and high ideals, questions 
will be settled invariably by determining whether 
the public will be served best by publishing or 
omitting certain items. No real service of the 
public demands brutal publicity of the private 
life of individuals. Even when publicity be- 
comes necessary, the subject may be presented 
in such a way as to show fairness and kindly 
consideration. Often after mature deliberation, 
the editor will decide that articles are unfit for 
publication on account of the direct or the in- 
direct influence they would exert on the moral 


THE CHRISTIAN EDITOR 175 


interests of the community he would serve. 

Christ’s teaching tends to prevent abuse or 
unwarranted criticism of any individual. In 
the heat of a contest it is often difficult to refrain 
from making statements that might easily be 
classed as abuse and it is natural to indulge in 
derogatory criticism which may have no basis 
in fact. The paper may easily be used as an 
organ of spite and the editor may forget that 
with a large audience on his subscription list, 
he is taking a very unfair advantage of another 
who has no public means of reply. Jesus’ teach- 
ing has unconsciously restrained those who 
would otherwise use the paper as a means of 
revenge for fancied or actual personal wrongs. 

Jesus has lessened the publicity that might be 
given the frailties and shortcomings of others by 
exposing them to the view of a curious public. 
Even though some papers may print news al- 
most irrespective of the feelings or interests of 
those who are the most vitally concerned, still 
there is a moderation shown by most papers, of 
the source of which they may be quite uncon- 
scious. Through the influence of some good 
mother, teacher, business man, book, or friend, 
they have unconsciously learned to apply the 
Golden Rule of consideration for others. It is a 


176 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


rare compliment when it is said of a man that 
he is fair in his judgments and dealings. It isa 
mark of thorough training and fine achievement 
in newspaper work to be able to gather and pre- 
sent material of public interest from the view- 
point of a disinterested and intelligent spectator 
and without personal bias. 


Vil 


The editor needs the influence of Christianity 
to create and maintain in him sensitiveness to 
moral values. The love of justice was ingrained 
in all Biblical writers. Not only is there a con- 
stand demand made upon the editor to maintain 
his personal integrity, but also in all moral rela- 
tions which come before him for valuation, re- 
buke, and approval, the need of righteousness 
should be continually stressed. As the sharp 
edge of a tool is dulled by constant use, so the 
experiences of life often blur those fine distinc- 
tions of right and wrong that were once very 
definite and that furnished unequivocal guidance 
in conduct. The teaching of Jesus not only wak- 
ens convictions of righteousness but also sus- 
tains and nourishes them by all the devotion in- 
spired by a love of virtue itself. The believer 
should be entirely committed to the furtherance 


THE CHRISTIAN EDITOR Ly 


~l 


of righteousness. To its promotion our Saviour 
gave his life, and one who serves him should be 
consumed by a like zeal in seeking to hasten the 
day when in all the relationships of life men shall 
deal with one another in justice and equity. 

There are various types of courage. There is 
the arousal of instinctive bravery when threat- 
ened by sudden disaster. The bigot or fanatic 
may disregard disaster. The well-informed and 
thoughtful person may face danger with a 
knowledge of the real risk incurred. The 
editor has little need of the first kind of bravery. 
He may possess the courage of the bigot, but 
what is most to be desired is that bravery which 
is united with intelligence. When courage is 
directed by intelligence, it is generally accom- 
panied by kindness, for it is usually those of 
either perverted or immature judgment who are 
cruel. A balanced judgment is perfected by the 
possession of refinement of feeling and a mind - 
which has been stored with well-established 
convictions. 

The editor who has not simply the courage of 
convictions but also the courage of convictions 
that are worth-while is best fitted to serve his 
fellow men. It is not always easy to fulfill an ob- 
vious obligation, especially when it is clear that 


178 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


there will be some loss connected with it. Oft- 
times it is a question of position, or of a chance 
to work, or of advancement which is at stake, 
rather than some momentous sacrifice. When 
it becomes clear that loyalty to obvious duties 
will mean a slow accumulation of forces which 
will work disadvantageously, then the real 
moral courage of a man is thoroughly tested. 
It is easy to be gripped by pessimism or distrust 
when there has been a prolonged struggle on 
behalf of right, especially if there have been real 
reverses. The mellowing influence of genuine 
well-wishing for our enemies, as well as for our 
friends, will do much to save from bitterness 
those who have the courage to be found loyal to 
their convictions. 

A certain detachment is often to the advan- 
tage of the editor, particularly if he seeks no 
political office. If he is cordial, but not too at- 
tached, to men in position of influence, he will 
be able to act in an impersonal way when their 
interests are at stake. Thus he will avoid that 
worst sort of enemy, the one who has been a 
friend and who feels that his friendship has been 
betrayed. 

The cause of promoting the public welfare is 
that to which the editor should give all of his 


THE CHRISTIAN EDITOR 179 


talent and heart’s devotion. If over many years 
he has lived to promote public welfare rather 
than class interests, he is amply rewarded in the 
consciousness of having served his fellow men. 


VIII 


Talk changes opinions. The place of the 
school, the orator, and the Church has been 
taken in large part by the press. It has no 
audible voice, but 1t has become the educa- 
tional agency for the masses of the people. 
The trend of their daily thought is determined 
by the newspaper they read and their convic- 
tions are crystallized by what it approves or 
censures. It is the greatest single agency in the 
creation and direction of the opinions of mature 
men and women. The ordinary citizen influ- 
ences a very limited audience. The newspaper 
may speak to thousands daily until they have 
consciously or unconsciously become converted 
to its views. It can crush or at least control any 
vice or dishonest business practice by repeatedly 
calling attention to its baneful influence. It can 
make and unsettle politicians, compel our in- 
efficient police departments to enforce existing 
laws, and put fear into the hearts of judges who 
are controlled by outside influences. It can bring 


180 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


about reforms in business practices, alleviate the 
condition of labor, promote education, encourage 
religion, and advance every cause that seeks to 
establish a more wholesome democracy. It may 
be the greatest terror to the forces of evil and 
the valiant champion of all worth-while causes. 
‘Pitiless publicity’’ is a phrase which describes 
accurately the power of the press to crush an 
existing evil by driving it into the light and re- 
peatedly exposing its harmful consequences to 
view. And the converse is just as true, that 
through publicity any worthy cause may obtain 
a hearing and secure a fair chance of victory. 
Public opinion in its formation passes through 
the same stages as those by which a crowd be- 
comes united in thought and feeling. At first 
there is little uniformity of opinion, individual 
differences are prominent, and there is not the 
compulsion which comes from large numbers 
holding common beliefs. As the crowd is won 
by arguments and by appeals to sentiment and 
is thus welded together until there is uniformity 
of conviction, so public sentiment forms slowly 
under the stress of repeated arguments and ex- 
hortations until the group holds common views 
and is ready to act. In a crowd, the orator may 
be the one who is able to bring about unity of 


THE CHRISTIAN EDITOR 181 


thought and feeling, but when people are 
scattered over wide areas, their attention can be 
caught and retained only by a simultaneous ap- 
peal through the press. A heavy responsibility 
rests on an editor because he deals with the 
public rather than with individuals. That is, he 
may influence business one day, patriotism an- 
other, athletics another, or all and many other 
interests at the same time. The editor thereby 
becomes a public person in a very pronounced 
way because he is concerned with everything 
which interests the public. His business is pub- 
licity. It is his stock in trade. Every aspect of 
his profession from the headliners of the front 
page to the smallest want advertisement is ar- 
ranged with a view to interesting the readers. 
The attempt to produce an article which the 
public will desire and approve develops a dis- 
criminating judgment as to the news value of 
the day’s happenings and a real appreciation of 
social movements at the time when public 
sentiment is being created. His profession offers 
almost unparalleled opportunity for public serv- 
ice if the editor has formulated any programs that 
are really constructive. | 


CHAPTER VI 


THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 


I 


DUCATION ‘is the transmission to the mdi- 
vidual of the information, attitudes, and 
habits which are of the greatest value to him 
in the civilization of which he is a part. It may 
be either formal or informal. In the latter case, 
education is received at home or in business. 
While this type may be valuable, the material is 
presented in a haphazard manner and there is a 
ereat loss of time in acquiring useful informa- 
tion. There is teaching in the formal sense where 
the material is organized and given to the stu- 
dent in a systematized way. This chapter con- 
cerns those who are engaged in formal education, 
rather than those in the wider field of informal 
education. 
I] 

There are two types of schools in our country: 
those which are supported by the state, and those 
which are privately conducted. As a rule, the 
latter either had their origin as Church schools or 
are now affiliated with some ecclesiastical or- 
ganization. These agencies constitute the equip- 

182 


THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 183 


ment of society for the education of the present 
generation. 

Experience has taught us some things which 
cannot be ignored. The first is that an estab- 
lished Church may not be an acceptable or ade- 
quate means of religious education. Where civil 
authority has supported an established Church 
there has resulted irreligious conduct. The 
history of Christianity from the days of Con- 
stantine has been one of hatred, bloodshed, and 
brutality whenever the political sanction of the 
State has been used to enforce religious beliefs. 
If history has any lesson to teach, it is that when 
great power has been placed in the hands of civil 
authority to secure religious conformity, it has 
always been abused. 

It would be quite another matter if the Bible 
were to be taught in all our schools and credited 
as a part of the course of study. It could be 
taught as one subject among other subjects as a 
part of our general cultural inheritance. There 
is a growing movement in this direction, but it is 
retarded by confusing Bible teaching and an 
established Church, and by the rather ground- 
less fear that perhaps giving the Bible any place 
in our schools may develop into the equivalent 
of an established Church. 


184 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


Til 


Religious education cannot be severed from 
culture, for both religion and culture are the 
works of God. The history of Christianity 
shows the fusion of these two elements. When- 
ever culture has not been genuine, then Chris- 
tianity has suffered. Christian faith sometimes 
developed in unprofitable directions because the 
culture with which it came in contact was crass 
and artificial. There is no real knowledge of 
Christianity as an historical fact which does 
not recognize the part which culture played 
in it, for current culture is in every book of 
the Bible. 

The modern mind has a new transcript of our’ 
universe. The historical method is revealing the 
real facts concerning the content and the growth 
of our present racial inheritance. Natural 
science is giving us the facts concerning the 
physical world. The social sciences, such as 
economics, sociology, social psychology, the 
pscychology of religion, and social ethics are 
remaking the conception of our social relations. 
The intellectual problem is to take this new 
transcript of reality and so weld it to religion 
that there may be such a union of all the values 
of life that man may have once more a program 





THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 185 


by which he can live aggressively and content- 
edly in a united world. 

The soul of man wearies when he cannot see 
his universe in such a way that it does not war 
against itself. Before there can be that exuber- 
ance out of which will flow, spontaneously and 
creatively, a satisfying life, this last transcript 
of reality will have to be united to religion. This 
is taking place before our eyes. It is not being 
accomplished in a very satisfactory manner in 
departments of religious education. ‘Too often, 
they are out of touch and sympathy with what 
men know to be real in the realm of culture. It 
is the teacher of sociology who feels deeply the 
need of principles which can guide in the creation 
ofa new society who turns to Jesus as the true 
Revealer of the laws by which men can live to- 
gether profitably and helpfully. It is the econo- 
mist who is convinced of the inadequacy of 
selfishness to establish economic stability who 
recognizes the validity of the claims of Jesus. It 
is the psychologist, with his clear knowledge of 
our animal inheritance, who can teach with force 
of Jesus as a regenerating power in human life. 
Wherever men struggle in the modern world to 
promote human welfare by scientific means, 
there Jesus makes his strongest appeal. The 


186 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


sreatest movement in the modern educational 
world is that in which teachers unite the culture 
of this age with the program of Jesus for men. 

This fusion of religion and culture may take 
place in any school. Whether the institution 
calls itself Christian is immaterial. Any institu- 
tion is only the teachers and students and 
officials who have labored there. Individual by 
individual, men further the cause of Christ in 
education or they hinder its progress. There are 
no Christian educational institutions and no 
secular educational institutions. There are 
creative, forward-looking Christian men in every 
educational institution of any consequence. 
There are individuals who have no real influence 
for religion in all educational institutions. More- 
over, in all such institutions there are those who 
promote hate and bigotry and are enemies of all 
true religion, no matter how familiarly they may 
use pious phrases and religious platitudes. An 
educational institution is the sum of the individ- 
ual acts of each student, teacher, and official, 


and nothing more. That is to say, an educational 


institution is its history. That history has in it 
all shades of moral acts. Some of these acts have 
been sublime, many are entirely commonplace, 
while others have been evil and harmful. Evil 


THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 187 


acts are never washed white because they fall 
within the life of a school which has named itself 
Christian. 

There are two views of teaching which, after 
all, are one. The first is to give to students the 
values of civilization for the promotion of their 
welfare. The Christ who was not above satisfy- 
ing the physical hunger of men will not divorce 
himself from any effort to present the values of 
civilization to students. In the second place, to 
interpret our present transcript of the universe 
so that the God of love reigns throughout it as 
the God of law, is genuine teaching of the most 
constructive type. It is a significant period in 
the life of any man when he comes to believe 
that to know our universe in any part is to know 
the God of love. 

There is a reason why the teachers remain in 
Christian institutions. It is not that the equip- 
ment of these schools generally can compare 
favorably with that of our better state institu- 
tions. It is the fact that a multitude of Christian 
parents have carefully trained their children in 
the Christian faith and have sent then to®Chris- 
tian institutions in the hope that civilization 
may be interpreted to them in a Christian way. 
Young people who believe in Jesus pour into these 


188 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


institutions in great numbers. They come as 
radiant believers in Jesus with open minds and 
hearts. The true teacher imparts to them the 


values of culture in such a way as not to destroy | 


love as the motive of their daily living. If his 
life has been fortified within by culture and 
religious faith, there are few places where the 
teacher can accomplish a greater work than in 
a school where all the students are trying to live 
the Christian life. This makes each teacher a 
religious educator. If the work of religious ed- 
ucation is to be accomplished it can only take 
place when the program of religious education is 
coextensive with the culture of each age. 

The greatest religious forces in the history of 
Christianity have been ‘teachers. It is not by 
accident that Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and 
Luther were all teachers. These men had the 
intellectual power to discern the significant in 
religion, and the first two were able to unite 
religion and culture. Augustine, the greatest 
man in the history of the Church since the days 
of the apostles, was a close student of the culture 
of his age, particularly of its philosophy. The 
effort to harmonize the truth of God in culture 
with the revelation of God in the Bible runs 
through all his writings. Thomas Aquinas har- 





THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 189 


monized the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle 
with religion in the Middle Ages and his teaching 
of the relation between religion and culture is 
still the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. 


IV 


The aim of the teacher may be defined in a 
number of ways, and these aims may also be 
combined in a variety of manners. It may be 
viewed as training others for service, as instruct- 
ing them that they may be able to appreciate 
and appropriate the real values of life, as 
preparing them for rational living; as aiding 
others to conform to law and order, as establish- 
ing right attitudes and ideals; as helping others 
to find themselves, through a harmonious de- 
velopment of all their powers; as character- 
building, as adjusting the individual to his 
environment, as training for making a living; 
as emancipating the spirit, as imparting culture, 
as arousing and fostering worthy ideals; as 
meeting the real needs of life through training 
in knowledge of what should be done. These 
definitions of the purpose of education may be 
viewed as arcs from a circle. No single definition 
will carry all the truth of what is meant by 
education. Some of the arcs in the circle of a 


190 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


complete definition are omitted through lack of 
knowledge and some of them are now being 
formed. Education as a means of promoting 
human welfare should be conceived as within the 
larger program of God for our welfare. 

Then we turn from the definitions which men 
have formulated and find in Jesus’ teaching 
both the exactness which we demand for direc- 
tion and the liberty which we also desire. Jesus 
differed from many prominent educators of our 
day in defining for us the vital reason for educa- 
tion. He conceived of earth as a place where the 
will of God was to be done. The perfect purposes 
of God were to be the supreme interests of men 
and unbroken fellowship with God was life’s 
greatest blessing. Not only was life infinitely 
worth while on earth, but this world was also 
introductory to another in which the spirit of 
God would have full sway and where life was to 
be eternal. Man craves for himself unity with 
an abiding spiritual world which will include 
within itself all the facts and aspirations of this 
life and also all his partly formed hopes for the 
future. In other words, we must know the real 
in the universe if we are to live a life of true 
proportion while here. Until we apprehend the 
truth in this large way, we are not able to handle 


—— 


THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 19] 


the details that make for its realization in our 
own life. This is what ails all partial schemes of 
education. There is no comprehensive unity 
running through all the worth-while fragments 
of educational ideals. There is nothing within 
such ideals, apart from Christianity, by which 
they may be properly valued. 

Jesus formulated those abiding moral and 
religious principles by which the world is able 
to gain a perspective of what constitutes true 
life. Principles are not rules in the sense that 
they indicate just what is to be done in each 
particular instance. The principles of physics 
can be given on a page, but their application in 
invention is immeasurable. Jesus did not dic- 
tate the details of conduct, but he did state those 
principles through which conduct may become 
all that can be desired. They constitute that 
necessary core of settled truth which is so essen- 
tial to complete living. The application of those 
principles he has left to us. With these thoughts 
in mind, we can return to the fragmentary 
educational ideals of our day and give them a 
proper setting in Jesus’ more comprehensive 
ideal of the Kingdom. In his Kingdom, all 
necessary work may be made a spiritual service. 
No legitimate interest of any life need lie outside 


192 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


the boundary of the Kingdom. In the concep- 
tion of an ideal society, such as was maintained 
by Jesus, the various educational aims finally 
are united in him. Without his teaching they 
would remain but disconnected fragments. 

The various conventional educational stand- 
ards need themselves to be enriched by con- 
ceptions not now recognized as an integral 
part of them. They should be enlarged by ideals 
which are religious if they are to serve as ad- 
equate guides for educational endeavor, for it is 
to religion that they themselves must come for 
a final valuation. Religion claims the right to 
designate what are the eternal values of life and 
to judge of the relative worth of all ideals in the 
light of its more permanent standards. 

If the aim of education is training for service, 
personal loyalty to Christ will be needed to 
travel the long and rough road of human better- 
ment with the heart strong and the eyes un- 
dimmed as a servant of one’s fellow men. If it is 
to appreciate and to use the real values of life, 
once the needed knowledge has been acquired it 
should be correlated with that satisfying and 
worthy system of thought and conduct given in 
the teaching of Jesus. Ifthe test of education is 
rational living, the teaching of Jesus will furnish 





THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 193 


the inexorable laws of a healthy personal and so- 
cial life. [If education is to be conceived as estab- 
lishing helpful personal and social attitudes 
which will make for a better world, love must - 
be the motive which fashions these new social 
attitudes. Should the aim of education be the 
harmonious development of all of our powers, 
the capacity for growth in the spiritual life 
cannot be ignored. In the province of character- 
building, Jesus stands unique. His conviction 
of the reality of an unseen spiritual world having 
immeasurable worth and slowly triumphing in 
the earth is without a parallel and demands that 
all shall adjust themselves to it. In his teaching, 
for the first time, the bread-and-butter aim of 
education is correctly subordinated to the more 
vital needs of life, and culture is found profit- 
able only as it is an aid to service and true self- 
realization. The great spiritual Church which 
Jesus founded bears witness to his power to 
loose individuals from the guilt and grip of sin, 
to bring liberty to the soul through growth in 
virtue, and to impart new life to men. These, 
and all other educational aims which could be 
mentioned, are included in Jesus’ program and 
their relative worth can be determined by what 
he taught, 


194 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


Morals and religion are unique in that every 
field of endeavor offers ample opportunity for 
their exercise. The physicist may have little 
need of the chemist, the biologist may have 
forgotten his mathematics, the historian may 
have limited skill in the fine arts, the lnguist 
may not be versed in psychology, and the inven- 
tor may have a meager knowledge of sociology. 
But religion and morals are vital concerns for all 
workers. They are lke the sunlight, giving light 
and life to all human endeavor; they furnish the 
causes for all our acts and make them worth- 
while by establishing them in a far-reaching and 
permanent moral order. Of course, the fields of 
knowledge overlap in some cases more than in 
others and they are necessary to one another, 
being related in as vital a way as are the members 
of the body. But as the whole body is controlled 
by one spirit, so all our achievements are dead 
works until morals and religion quicken them 
and give them life. Some would divorce their 
work and the methods used in it from religion 
and morals. It may be done only in part, and 
then at a sacrifice, for no man’s thoughts can be 
limited to fragments of the field of knowledge 
with no consideration of other fields, without 
being greatly hampered. 


THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 195 


V 


Adults have reached a somewhat fixed level 
of life and, as a rule, their behavior will not vary 
greatly from a conventional standard. Children 
and youths are great because of what they 
may become. Every child is rich in undiscovered 
talents, with immeasurable power of growth 
in directions almost without number. Youth 
is not fascinating because of its achievement but 
rather on account of the potentialities that lie 
dormant within. It takes us back to all things 
sweet and clean and enthusiastic. It awakens 
in us a sense of reverence because the wondrous 
privilege of fashioning life itself has been com- 
mitted to our hands. 

The connected verses in Matthew which are 
quoted reveal the heart of our Lord and the 
thought he cherished about children. “In that 
hour came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who 
then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And 
he called to him a little child, and set him in the 
midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, 
Except ye turn, and become as little children, 
ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of 
heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble 
himself as this little child, the same is the great- 
est in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall 


196 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


receive one such little child in my name receiveth 
me: but whoso shall cause one of these little 
ones that believe on me to stumble, it is pro- 
fitable for him that a great millstone should be 
hanged about his neck, and that he should be 
sunk in the depth of the sea. 

‘“‘Woe unto the world because of occasions of 
stumbling! for it must needs be that the 
occasions come; but woe to that man through 
whom the occasion cometh! And if thy hand 
or thy foot causeth thee to stumble, cut it off, 
and cast it from thee: it is good for thee to enter 
into life maimed or halt, rather than having two 
hands or two feet to be cast into the eternal fire. 
And if thine eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck 
it out, and cast it from thee: it is good for thee 
to enter into life with one eye, rather than having 
two eyes to be cast into the hell of fire. See 
that ye despise not one of these little ones: for I 
say unto you, that in heaven their angels do 
always behold the face of my Father who is in 
heaven. How think ye? if any man have a 


hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, — 


doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and go 
unto the mountains, and seek that which goeth 


astray) And if so be that he find it, verily I say _ 


unto you, he rejoiceth over it more than over the 


. 
4 





THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 197 


ninety and nine which have not gone astray. 
Even so it is not the will of your Father who is 
in heaven, that one of these little ones should 
perish.” 

These verses are pregnant with meaning for 
the teacher. There is no material which can be 
reckoned as the equivalent of the life of a child. 
The verses show the high regard of Jesus for 
those unspoiled by the conventions of society 
who were open-minded and eager to be taught. 
When he saw that his disciples were set in their 
ways and strongly influenced by worldly desires 
for prominence, he called to a child, and when it 
was seated in their midst, he said that they 
needed to be transformed in their lives and to 
become like the children. He discerned the 
advantage of youth over maturity in its possi- 
bilities of unhampered growth. He made it 
obligatory upon his disciples to seek humbly for 
themselves and to possess the loving, trustful 
spirit of youth if they were to have a place in 
his Kingdom. He possessed such a spirit and 
he realized how much it had meant in his own 
life; hence he could say to his disciples that in 
receiving even one chiid they had received him, 
since he had a child spirit. 

It was a matter of supreme concern to Jesus 


198 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


that the environment should be wholesome. 
He was concerned that those who associated 
with children should realize the rare privilege 
which was theirs in imparting those ideals which 
would fashion sensitive lives. Better to sink in 
the sea with a great stone tied to the neck than 
to cause a believing child to become offended. 
That they might be adequately impressed with 
the seriousness of misleading children, he con- 
tinued, pointing out that offenses would come, 
that it were better to lose a hand or foot or eye 
than falsely to instruct a child, for to do so 
would be to merit everlasting punishment. 
No other teacher has ever indicated with such 
clearness the penalty which comes to the one 
who misdirects a child in its spiritual growth. 
In contrast to the offense of causing a child to 
disbelieve is set God’s watchful care over the 
children and his special nearness to them, when 
Jesus says that the angels of children ever look 
upon the face of the Father. Then, lest there 
remain any doubt in the minds of the disciples 
about his relation to children, he told them the 
beautiful story of the shepherd who, leaving the 
ninety and nine safely in the fold, went into 
the mountains to seek that which had strayed. 
When the shepherd had found the lost sheep, 


THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER Loe 


his heart warmed as it could not over those 
safely sheltered within the fold. The beautiful 
parable concluding Jesus’ discourse about chil- 
dren closes with the assurance that it is God’s 
will that not a single child should perish. As 
the teacher comes to appreciate Jesus’ attitude 
toward children, his own partly formed con- 
victions of the worth of their lives and the 
divine privilege of fashioning their characters 
are settled and truly interpreted to him. 


VI 


Jesus as a teacher met many of the problems 
common to all teachers. In the remainder of this 
chapter, with the exception of the last para- 
eraphs, a number of these more technical 
problems are considered in their relation to the 
experience of Jesus. 

The teacher of science believes that is true 
which he can subject to the test of experience or 
rationally infer from experience. Experience 
must furnish the data upon which the conclu- 
sions are to be based. The first reaction of the 
Church to modern science was one of hostility, 
for it felt that the truth of the Scripture could 
not be the product of experience. Unknown to 
itself, the Church had departed from the method 


200 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


of Jesus of ascertaining the truth. Jesus con- 
sidered all available material at hand and then 
made his decisions. It is evident that he did not 


accept the Old Testament as the sole basis of | 


authority. The principle which he followed in 
these decisions was the promotion of human 
welfare. The acme of religious culture in his day 
was the observance of the Sabbath. In a single 
keen thrust, he lifted the yoke they had imposed 
upon men when he said that the Sabbath had 
been made for man. He made his decisions in 
the light of his total experience. He had the 
scientific attitude toward life. Scientific prog- 
ress, whether in the natural or the social 
sciences, has been the result of an attitude of 
mind. It developed from a constant testing of 
conclusions in the light of experience. Jesus took 
the responsibility of deciding upon the basis of 
experience what he would say and do. Each 
soul must assemble all the evidence of which it 
is capable and make its decisions concerning that 
which it will believe and do. Jesus did it himself 
and he expects his followers to do likewise. This 
is a part of our responsibility because we are 
human. 

Jesus used both the deductive and inductive 
methods of teaching. The Sermon on the Vount 


THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 201 


is filled with fully matured and perfectly formu- 
lated generalizations. They sink into the heart 
with a sense of finality. They are fragments of 
the constitution of a heavenly Kingdom and 
their perfection is in keeping with the society 
which they seek to establish. 

Not only did Jesus give to his disciples these 
finished generalizations in the field of moral and 
religious guidance, but he also taught them by 
stories. He illustrated almost every phase of his 
teaching with stories which convinced. They 
were unified, attractive, and adapted to his 
hearers. When Jesus wished to fasten the fact 
of the love of God toward man in the world’s 
thought and life, he told the story of the Prodigal 
Son. It needs few if any comments. In itself the 
story carries conviction, has unchanging attrac- 
tiveness, and makes a strong appeal to men to 
surrender their lives to the Father. It is a story 
which fires the imagination, warms the heart, 
and stirs the will to action. It is short, fascinat- 
ing, and compelling in its appeal. The stories of 
Jesus linger in the minds of all Bible students 
when other portions of the Scriptures are diffi- 
cult to recall or have passed from memory. As 
Jesus taught of God’s love towards us by means 
of a story, so he also taught us of love to one 


202 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


another through the use of another story, that 
of the Good Samaritan. This story is the com- 
plement of that of the Prodigal Son and is of 
almost equal power. 

Jesus’ illustrations and parables were taken 
from common life. He taught from the known 
to the unknown, using things that were natural 
as illustrations of spiritual realities. To his dis- 
ciples, he was Bread and Water and Light. He 
was the Vine and they were the branches. He 
was the Good Shepherd and they were the sheep. 
He was the Host and they were the guests. They 
were lighted candles, cities situated on hills, and 
purifying salt. All these and other figures of 
speech were from familiar experiences of their 
daily life and could be easily understood. 

It was a mark of Jesus’ teaching that it was 
crystal-clear. The teacher understands that if a 
subject is thoroughly understood its underlying 
principles can be stated with simplicity. When 
we come to the subject of morals and religions, 
the ease with which Jesus instructs men shows 
that he had that comprehension of spiritual 
truth which appears only after complete famili- 
arity with it, mature meditation upon it, and 
habitual reactions to it. The teacher attempts 
to unfold truth in some field of knowledge to 


THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 203 


those who desire it as their possession. Though 
a portion of his subject may be theoretical, yet 
there is generally a small center of truth with 
which he is very familiar and of which he is cer- 
tain. This same familiarity and certainty ap- 
pears in Jesus’ teaching about God and man, and 
man’s relation to God. This assurance of Jesus 
in religious knowledge may be appreciated by 
the teacher when, reasoning by analogy from his 
familiarity with his favorite subject, he seeks to 
understand Jesus as a teacher of religion. 

The greatest lesson which Jesus taught his 
disciples was his own life. They could sense his 
spirit in his works and listen to his words. His 
words and works were backed by a masterful 
and loving life and the Christ himself was ever 
more than any of his deeds or words. The latter 
revealed, only in part, the glory of his spirit. 
A man is more than the statements he makes 
and deeds he has accomplished. There are the 
ereat silent and unknown places in every soul, 
there are the dreams that have never been told 
or realized, the burdens borne in secret, and the 
mystery of the soul when it faces itself, which 
make a man more than any outward expression 
of his life. What a glance must have accom- 
panied Jesus’ words, what joy must have glowed 


204 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


in his face at the discernment of some appre- 
ciation of heavenly truth, what sadness must 
have shadowed his features at the havoc wrought 
by some sin, what indignation there was at the 
desecration of the house of God for purposes 
of business! He gave to his disciples a life plus 
its words and works, and it is so with the teacher. 
He is more than the subjects taught. He gives 
more than instruction. What a man is, may be 
as truly a gift to the world as what he says or 
does. The Christian teacher is Christianity ex- 
pressing itself through an individual. The pupil 
is swift to discern the presence or absence of this 
inner life. Ofttimes, all that the teacher says is 
forgotten, but the spirit of the teacher makes an 
indelible impression which the years are unable 
to erase. 

When Jesus’ secret life becomes vocal, we have 
Jesus’ words. They spring from settled convic- 
tions with the spontaneity which special oppor- 
tunities might require; as when an inquiring 
ruler visited him by night or an inquisitive 
lawyer asked him a question, or a wayward 
woman argued at a public well, or a trusting 
disciple sought instruction because of some per-— 
plexing problem which he had met. Almost all 
of Jesus’ words that are left us are records of 


THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 205 


conversations. He preached almost no sermons 
and gave but few if any fixed addresses. He was 
earth’s perfect conversationalist, highly esteem- 
ing the privilege which by many is held of slight 
value, that of talking to people. His table talks 
were brilliant with pointed statements rich in 
sympathetic approval and searching in telling 
rebuke. His conversations were masterpieces of 
ready adjustments to human needs; they were 
marked by a sustained idealism. He should ever 
be an inspiration to the teacher who prizes con- 
versation as offering opportunities for instruc- 
tion in the important matters of morals and 
religion. 

The inner life of Christ found expression also in 
works. He was a man of mighty deeds. He 
cleansed the lepers, restored sight to the blind, 
caused the paralyzed to walk, and repeatedly 
healed all manner of disease. Yet this was not 
his primary task. He so lived and instructed 
and wrought before a small group of men that 
when he asked them who he was, one replied 
that he was the Son of God. Jesus brought his 
first followers to serve him as God, and in his 
earthly life laid the foundation of a Kingdom in 
which he was to control absolutely the whole 
life of mankind. He was a man of marvelous 


206 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


works. When the written record is compared 
with the scope of his work, it appears that he 
was reticent of speech in the light of his vast 
achievements. While it is now known that no 
other spoke as did he, it is also established that 
no other ever wrought such wondrous works. He 
could make his works a ground of appeal for 
trusting him, saying that if men were not able 
to believe his words, they could at least receive 
him because of his works. The words of Jesus 
are fraught with such meaning to us that we may 
fail to recall that they have the ring of authority 
and certainty which is found where there is great 
achievement. 

Jesus can stand every test which may be ap- 
plied in our day to detect a forceful personality. 
The ordinary marks of positive personality in a 
man are depth of thought, clearness of expres- 
sion, and tenacity of purpose. These traits are 
found in all strong men, whether or not they 
have given themselves to the promotion of 
righteous causes. ‘Their possession is an indica- 
tion of natural strength. On the most difficult 
and comprehensive of all subjects, that of relig- 
ion, Jesus has given the clearest and most satis- 
factory teaching. It isnot required that a teacher 
shall possess literary skill, but he must at least be 


THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 207 


able to express his thought in words which convey 
with exactness the desired meaning. When we 
consider Jesus’ fidelity to the accomplishment of 
the will of God, he is the pattern of all who give 
themselves without reservation to the realization 
of some great purpose. In childhood he told an 
anxious mother that she should expect him to be 
about his Father’s business; in days of earnest 
endeavor he referred to God’s will for himself as 
his daily food; and in death he exulted that his 
task had been completed. 

There is now given to men an example of a 
whole life so controlled of God that they are 
able to accept that life as an exact revelation of 
what God is in himself. Yet of the childhood of 
Jesus it is said that he “advanced in wisdom 
and stature, and in favor with God and men.” 
Christian personality is a growth. It is the prod- 
uct of high thinking, continuous effort, and a 
fixed determination. Jesus left his disciples a 
program by which they might develop person- 
ality. If they would abide in him, they would 
bear fruit; through abiding, they would continue 
in his love, have their prayers answered, and 
possess his joy. Habitual responses in right 
action and the guidance of helpful attitudes are 
gained by those who abide in Christ. Clearness 


208 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


of thought, ease of expression, and settled con- 
victions grow in the life which abides in him, and 
there is a winsome attractiveness about it which 
is often lacking even in strong men. A teacher 
may secure a salary by means of technical skill 
and the conventional social graces, but strong 
influence over the moral and religious life of 
students is exerted by the teacher whose daily 
walk shows forth the strength, beauty, and 
charm of the Christian life. A Christan person- 
ality is the greatest achievement of any teacher. 
It gives him real control of those who come to 
him for instruction. In knowing the man, his 
students are ministered to by one who is an 
example in the great Teacher’s stead. 

Jesus met and dealt helpfully with all types 
of people. He taught the scoffers, the indifferent, 
the weak, the willful, the impulsive, the over- 
zealous, the faithful, and the dutiful. His teach- 
ing was largely that of individuals rather than of 
groups. In fact, he sought repeatedly to escape 
publicity and the crowd that he might give 
individual instruction to a few disciples who 
were traveling with him. Jesus’ personal and 
friendly comment to Nathanael, that he was an 
Israelite without guile, attracted him to Jesus. 
‘When a scholar sought him by night, his simple, 





THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 209 





truthful, exalted, loving questions and answers 
were such as are still treasured as among the 
rarest words ever spoken by man. When an 
alert and attractive yet sinful woman would 
listen to his teaching, the same lofty thought is 
maintained, the same searching questions are 
asked, and patiently and in love she is brought 
to the climax of the lesson when Jesus can tell 
her that the one who is teaching her is the 
Messiah. When a beggar who had been healed 
of blindness had been cast out of the synagogue, 
Jesus found him and revealed himself to him. 
When a disciple had denied him with cursing, he 
sent special word to the man that he wanted to 
meet him again in Galilee. A careful examina- 
tion of the Gospels will reveal that they are a 
record of studies which Jesus made in individual 
differences. His teaching sprang from contact 
with definite persons whose needs he was seeking 
to meet. He was not a teacher living in a world 
of abstractions. As he met one concrete need 
after another, the marvelous words just fitted to 
the occasion were spoken. ‘Truth came into the 
world by means of a Worker and a Conversa- 
tionalist who wrought while it was yet day. 
Truth vital to Jesus was given to men because a 
definite person had been healed of palsy or blind- 


210 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


ness or leprosy, because a definite woman needed 
to be reclaimed from sin, because a definite dis- 
ciple was to be encouraged or corrected, or 
because some definite scorner needed to be re- 
buked. The main chance for Jesus seemed to 
lie in dealing with individuals as such when he 
could discover their problems and meet their 
needs. It should encourage the teacher who 
takes time from the classroom to work with 
individuals that this was the method most used 
and most highly prized by our Lord. 

Jesus was a great disciplinarian. His followers 
were attached to him by ties of love and the rule 
of his school was that if they loved him they 
would keep his commandments, His pupils were 
mostly adults who had voluntarily joined him as 
their teacher. Even in the apostolic company 
there was constant need of correction. Many 
were the heartaches caused by Judas and Peter. 
Judas was the follower who was not reclaimed. 
Even at the last, Jesus used only kind words to 
him. While love was the law of Jesus’ school, it 
did not mean that he was not severe. When 
aroused by the desecration of the house of God 
for commercial purposes, he used corporal pun- 
ishment. When he had tried for three years 
to win the leaders of a stiff-necked people, he 


THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 211 


told them that they were as serpents, as graves 
filled with the bones of the dead, that they were 
fools, blind guides, and hypocrites. But it took 
years of violent opposition before Jesus revealed 
to them their true position, and then only after 
he had tried to win them by gentle methods. He 
was also severe with his disciples. He repeatedly 
rebuked them for their false pride, misdirected 
ambition, and lack of faith, while he taught 
them with infinite patience. When he had used 
such plainness of speech that the multitude left 
him, indignant at his words, he turned to the 
small band he had faithfully taught and asked 
them if they would also leave. When he sum- 
moned his apostles, he told them plainly that 
they would be outcasts if they followed him, that 
they would be beaten with stripes, thrust from the 
synagogues, in danger of: death, and separated 
from their own homes. To remain in Jesus’ 
school, a man had to be able to stand the acid 
test of living by his convictions of the truth. A 
life of real love, pure, noble, and powerful, must 
have a foundation of righteousness and truth. 
The truthful and kindly life is that of love. In 
every case of discipline, Jesus was truthful and 
kind that men might be led to love God and one 
another. Peter was Jesus’ most perplexing dis- 


21g SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


ciple. He was the natural leader of the apostolic 
company. He was alert, daring, self-willed, 
impulsive, and generous. Jesus encouraged him 
by acknowledging his strength when he called 
him a rock. He kept him near him in all the 
trials in which hé craved the fellowship of the 
beloved John. Peter was with Jesus when he 
wrought great miracles. It was the mother of 
Peter’s wife whom Jesus cured of a fever. He 
saved Peter from death by drowning. He told 
Peter that he had prayedfor him. He rebuked his 
foolish speech when he would not permit Jesus 
to wash his feet. He corrected him for cutting 
off the ear of the high priest’s servant. He 
recalled Peter when he had denied him and com- 
missioned him to shepherd others when he ap- 
peared to him after the resurrection. Through 
months of discipline, Jesus fashioned the natural 
leader of his small band of followers until he 
became the leader in the apostolic company. 
Every talent Peter possessed was brought, in 
time, under the direction of Jesus. His hardest- 
won disciple proved the greatest leader of the 
Early Church. Slowly Peter’s will was volun- 
tarily surrendered until he sought only the will 
of his Lord and used the strength of his life in 
his service. The circumstances determined the 


- THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 213 


discipline which Jesus used, whether it was 
corporal punishment, sharp rebuke, or loving 
reproof. His aim was always to promote the 
moral and spiritual life of those he corrected. In 
each individual case, he gave that treatment 
which would most likely safeguard the souls 
from the assaults of evil. When his treatment 
of the deficient is carefully reviewed, it can be 
understood how severity and love may be united. 
in discipline and how the most searching reproof 
may be the greatest service which one person 
may render another. 

The teacher of young pupils is in a somewhat 
different relation to his students from that of 
Jesus to his followers. They were generally 
adults and Jesus was always careful that their 
choices of entering and continuing in his service 
should be wholly voluntary. He was careful to 
force, in no way, the will of another. The 
teacher often stands in the double capacity of an 
instructor and a disciplinarian. It is required of 
him that he maintain order in the classroom. 
He has parental authority while pupils are under 
his care, yet the ideal for him is the same as that 
of Jesus, that, if possible, his students shall be 
trained to a voluntary selection of worthy ideals 
of right conduct. 


214 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


Jesus’ respect for the free will of the adult is 
striking. Although he knew that he was the 
Saviour of lost men and was convinced that if 
they rejected him, there was no hope for them, 
yet there is very little beseeching in his ministry. 
Rather it was his practice to tell the truth in a 
way which left it open to a man to receive him | 
as Saviour; then he waited for the one addressed 
to make the decision. 

The consideration of Jesus in appealing to men 
rests on the fact that they were responsible 
beings who must make their own choices. No 
finer tribute is paid to human life than the con- 
sideration which Jesus showed in the appeals he 
made to others to follow him. Men left him 
because of this reserve, yet rather than desecrate 
human life, he let them go. He was as aware of 
the boundary of man’s responsibility and privi- 
lege as he was of his own responsibility and he 
regarded scrupulously the great privilege of 
choice which is the endowment of every man. 
Jesus could wait patiently for results. It was 
only after months of faithful teaching and tender 
working that he asked his disciples who they 
thought he was. He waited for convictions to 
form in their lives and he did not force their 
erowth though his time was short. It was 


~ THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 219 
tremendously important that they should rll 
preciate him; yet it was so necessary that they 
should reach these conclusions for themselves 
that Jesus would not hasten their growth. While 
he used every art compatible with maintaining 
the dignity of human life to bring them to a true 
knowledge of himself, he was not willing to 
hasten their development beyond what they 
were able to discover for themselves. The result 
of such teaching was the development of men of 
marvelous spiritual insight and power. He made 
them do research work in the Kingdom of God, 
and when he left them, they continued the same 
type of constructive endeavor under the guidance 
of the Spirit. The teacher who fashions men 
should have the same high regard for life and a 
patience which will attempt to accomplish a per- 
fect work through years of faithful endeavor. 
The youth trained in right ways will be slow to 
leave them. That teaching will be most con- 
structive which adds habit to habit until the 
mind moves freely and forcefully in the subject 
acquired. 

Jesus’ business was the making of men; it was 
to train others for citizenship in the Kingdom of 
heaven. When the man was saved and nurtured 
in Christian truth, then he would fill with credit 


216 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


a place in any vocation he might select. He was 
a vocational teacher only in the wide sense of 
starting manhood with the best possible equip- 
ment for any work in life. If the vocational 
teacher would follow his Lord, he should remem- 
ber that his chief-concern for every man should 
be that he may become a willing citizen in the 
Kingdom of God. There is a need of more voca- 
tional training, but there is a still greater need of 
holding as of supreme worth manhood as de- 
veloped in the Kingdom of God. There should be 
‘no less vocational education but a more vigorous 
acknowledgment of God’s righteousness and 
authority on the part of all engaged in educa- 
tional effort. 

Jesus created and maintained interest in his 
teaching under the most adverse conditions. He 
interested fisher folk, an exacting government 
official, a devoted scholar, and a contentious 
scribe. Not only did he attract their attention 
to him, but he was also able to make them eager 
to learn more and to maintain their interest in 
his teaching. This interest he maintained in 
spite of hatred on the part of many who were 
socially prominent and who possessed authority. 
He had no comfortable schoolroom where his 
pupils could assemble daily and be taught under 


THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 217 


favorable conditions. He was a wanderer, often 
driven from one town to another, yet the people — 
heard him with joy and men left all to be in- 
structed by him. He met the exacting test of 
being able to create and maintain interest in his 
instruction under adverse circumstances. The 
successful teacher must be able to awaken in- 
terest. .No matter how much knowledge the 
teacher may possess, if he cannot arouse interest 
in his subject, the information will serve him 
little as a teacher. He must be able to create 
a desire to know and then to fan to a flame these 
first sparks of curiosity until the will to know 
shall become as a consuming fire. ‘Then there is 
that abandonment in which every word spoken 
is treasured and built into life itself. In sus- 
tained interest the teacher finds the soil in 
which the seed sown becomes most fruitful. 
His Lord has left him an example of what it 
means to create and sustain interest. 

Teachers know that it is difficult to get pupils 
to think for themselves. Pupils often have such 
implicit confidence that they are willing to ac- 
cept their teacher’s word with no modifications 
and as final. The trust of the average pupil in a 
worthy teacher is something beautiful to behold. 
This is true even when the student is advanced 


218 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


and in college. There is a wealth of pure affection 
lavished on the true teacher of which he may not 
even be aware. The trust of youth should be as 
sacred to him as was the trust of the disciples of 
old to their Lord. He is often the way of life to 
them. Without him they could neither discover 
nor travel it. It will always be one of the re- 
wards of this noble art that its devotees are 
loved of many. 

Our Saviour and Lord made teaching a life 
work. When he was a child, he was found by his 
anxious parents both answering and asking 
questions at the college of teachers. When his 
disciples had gathered about him, he taught 
them in the lessons on the mount. In Galilee he 
taught in the synagogues, preached the gospel, 
and healed all kinds of diseases among the 
people. In conversation and action, he was ever 
seeking to instruct. When he gave the Great 
Commission to his followers, his order was to 
convert all nations and to teach them the things 
which he had commanded. The seventeenth 
chapter of John is the prayer of a Redeemer and 
a Teacher. Its loving petitions are the natural 
expressions of the yearning of a Great Teacher 
for the welfare of his own. They voice the senti- 
ment of those to whom teaching is a profession 


THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 219 


and not a business. The teacher of true nobility 
of character prays with his Lord, “Holy Father, 
keep them in thy name which thou hast given 
me.’ 

Education without religion is failing to-day 
as is shown by the moral conditions in our high 
schools. Teachers are faced with moral laxness 
in many high-school students. Many parents 
fear to send their children to the public schools, 
particularly in our cities. In the critical time of 
youth the teacher has hours of fellowship with 
them. Here is the great opportunity to aid those 
who are confused in life and sensitive to genuine 
leadership. It is not enough to be passive before 
such students. The aggressive teacher can be the 
most helpful. It is not sufficient simply to impart 
information. The teacher should be clean-cut 
in his statements in every moral discussion 
which arises, and, what is more important, he 
should be Christian in conduct. Moral issues 
hover over every field of human interest and are 
the backbone of such subjects as literature, his- 
tory, sociology, and economics. ‘Those teachers 
who respond naturally and helpfully in the moral 
issues raised in the course of the day’s work will 
render an invaluable service to the youth of this 
generation. Not only will such teachers present 


220 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


our historical inheritance and value it for their 
pupils but the pupils will bring their problems 
as the days pass and the whole of their life 
interests will be interpreted in terms of the 
finest manhood and the most attractive woman- 
hood. Those teachers who understand Jesus as 
a teacher will be most serviceable to their pupils. 


Vil 


Teachers are closely related to the two most 
pronounced movements of our day, namely the 
erowth of science and the development of 
democracy. In the past the larger part of the 
course of study in our schedule has been idealis- 
tic. It has followed that those who were leaders 
in education have generally been apt in express- 
ing themselves concerning matters of morals 
and religion. They have been trained to discern 
and express moral distinctions, and perhaps they 
have also received a religious education. In con- 
trast to this type of training, there has developed 
a form of education which is scientific in its 
nature. The scientific worker is methodical, un- 
emotional, and ordinarily taciturn. The dis-_ 
coveries of science which have so greatly blessed 
mankind have occurred only after long and 
painstaking research. The years of uneventful 


THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 221 


endeavor to discover some practical boon for 
mankind are often such that very little can be 
said about them. The work is impersonal be- 
cause it is scientific. Of course, the natural scien- 
tist may have definitely in mind that his labor 
is an unselfish service to promote the welfare of 
mankind, yet there may be no particular reason 
why his motives should be expressed or thrust 
into the foreground. The scientific worker is a 
new type of religious worker. The day might 
easily come in education when the teachers of 
natural science would constitute a majority of 
those engaged in educational work. While it 
may be difficult for scientists to adjust them- 
selves to conventional religion and for classical 
scholars to appreciate natural science, yet it is 
inevitable that a new type of religious worker be 
recognized, namely the fact-loving, unostenta- 
tious scientist. 

The development in our day of equal impor- 
tance with the progress of science has been the 
erowth of democracy. The success of democracy 
depends upon the intelligence of the average 
man, and the school is the social agent for the 
diffusion of knowledge. Therefore, success of a 
democracy is almost certain where there is prev- 
alent a high type of education. The growth of 


222 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


universal education is closely related to the rise 
of Protestantism, for the right of all men to a 
common-school education was first actively 
propagated during the Reformation. Education 
makes self-reliant citizens who are able to deter- 
mine the relative worth of the different values 
which come to them for their consideration. It 
enables men to appropriate for themselves the 
highest values. It trains in that discrimination, 
judgment, and initiative which are necessary to 
the preservation of a democracy. The teachers 
of a country train the on-coming generation to 
safeguard and enjoy the fruits of democracy. 


CHAPTER VII 


THE NEW PROFESSION 
I 


HERE are three marks of a professional 

man. He must have a technical education, 
skill in the use of his knowledge, and an attitude 
of helpfulness toward others. No matter how 
blurred the qualifications may have become in 
any single instance they are the historical 
inheritance of those who practice the well- 
established professions. They have never ceased 
to be clearly defined theoretical, if not always 
practical, guides in conduct. The professions 
are fortified by an ancestry who had the courage 
to think across class interest and to exemplify 
these convictions in life, and now the business 
man is asked to raise his conception of life to 
that professional level. In the hour when 
business is viewed as a profession, the idealism 
of Jesus, latent in the professions, will become 
the accepted standard of conduct for the civi- 
lized world. The professions will be saved from 
commercialism, and business will have become a 
profession. Numerically, the new profession 
will outrank all others combined. 

220 


224 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


What should be the basic moral ideal of this 
new profession? It must be the promotion of 
human welfare, for this is the only aim worthy 
of the service of human life. Before any man 
can work whole-heartedly for any great ideal he 
must be convinced of the essential validity of 
his aim. Has Jesus anything to say to the aver- 
age business man that will challenge his man- 
hood, commend itself to his sanity, and offer 
to him a cause which is worthy of the sacrifice 
of his life; or must Jesus be a Spectator sitting 
on thé side lines while others play the game? 

What was the judgment of Jesus concerning 
the thing worth-while? Because we are often 
literalists, we fail to see the far-reaching con- 
sequences of the attitude of Jesus toward life. 
We confuse his illustrations with the principles 
beneath them until both become unreal. Many 
of the illustrations which he used are foreign to 
our manner of thought. Because we quibble at 
the literal meaning of the material which he used 
to reénforce principles, we do not grasp firmly 
the great guides to conduct which he left us and 
they lose their power to control us. 

The judgments of Jesus were based upon what 
he knew would promote human welfare. In his 
public ministry he was called upon repeatedly 


THE NEW PROFESSION 225 


to define his position. He faced each issue 
squarely and when human welfare was im- 
periled by tradition or by the Old Testament, he 
set both aside. He dealt with the live topics of 
his day and made them reveal the principles 
which are good for our guidance for all time. 
Some of the more important subjects of common 
interest were Sabbath observance, worship and 
Temple service, property, oaths, the family, 
justice, mercy, and revenge. A number of these 
topics are now of secondary importance. How- 
ever, it is in just these matters that the principle, 
used to reach a decision, is most clearly revealed. 
For that reason they are noted. Hungry dis- 
ciples broke the Jewish law of Sabbath observ- 
ance by plucking grain for breakfast. The 
amazing thing about the situation is that when 
the religious leaders questioned Jesus about the 
matter he drew no fine distinction between the 
Old Testament Sabbath and their convention- 
alized Sabbath, but handled the whole problem 
of Sabbath observance on the basis of its merits. 
He settled the issue in terms of human welfare. 
He ignored the teaching of the Old Testament 
that would put to death a man for bearing a 
burden or kindling a fire on the Sabbath, and 
appealed to experience and to human welfare. 


226 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


There are at least four reasons which Jesus gave 
as a justification for placing the humble need of 
breakfast before religious institutions and tradi- 
tions, even when based upon the Old Testament. 
God was always working and that gave him the 
right to do works of healing on the Sabbath. 
David and his followers ate the sacred bread, 
when hungry, to satisfy human needs. Priests 
worked on the Sabbath in performing their 
religious duties. Finally, the prophets placed 
deeds of mercy above sacrifice. Every appeal 
by which Jesus defended his disciples was to 
human experience and to human welfare. He 
closed the discussion by reference to the principle 
of human welfare when he said that the Sabbath 
was made for man. This principle had been the 
touchstone of all his other tests. What becomes 
clear in the controversy is the principle which 
Jesus used to settle the issue. 

The matter of fasting was of no great moment 
to him, because it bore neither one way nor the 
other on our well-being. In the Temple men 
were not to be disturbed, for worship was a 
deep-seated human right. The Jews had made 
a market of the only place within the Temple 
area where the Gentiles were permitted to wor- 
ship, and the din of business made worship 


THE NEW PROFESSION pat 


impossible. He cleansed the Temple that the 
welfare of the devout Gentiles might be furthered 
and not because the place as such was sacred. 
His teaching stressed mercy since it made for 
human welfare. He battled against the spirit of 
revenge because of the harm which it wrought in 
personal and social life. He was stern in his 
condemnation of divorce because it destroyed 
family life. When the Jesus of the Gospels is 
understood, there is no decision which is not 
reached on the basis of human welfare. The 
custom of being compelled to carry a load a mile 
may lose its force for modern life; the gift of a 
cloak may be supplanted by modern charities; 
but the principle abides that we should love one 
another and seek the welfare of our fellow men. 

To cite these incidents of a past age as they 
are handled by Christ is no artificial thing, since 
the new profession of business cannot afford to 
guess concerning the foundation upon. which it 
is to be built. The principle underneath a judg- 
ment may stand clearly revealed even though 
the incidents in connection with which the judg- 
ment is formed may themselves seem trivial in 
character. Thus it has happened that the judg- 
ments of Jesus in a number of minor matters 
have brought into the foreground the principle 


228 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


upon which his decisions were based, namely, 
that a problem should be solved by a considera- 
tion of that which best promotes human welfare. 

The most significant characteristic of a pro- 
fession is that it is pursued to promote the wel- 
fare of others. Those who are worthy of their 
places in the professions work for the welfare of 
humanity. They are not controlled in their con- 
duct by class divisions and they refuse to make 
financial profit the measure of their success. The 
practical idealism which places fraternal rela- 
tions with all men in the foreground of living is 
the glory of the well-established professions. 
Even though many are disloyal in conduct to 
their ideals, they know that they are violating 
the commonly accepted standard that human 
values are of primary importance in all personal 
and social relations. It is the teaching of Jesus 
that men should think and act in terms of human 
values and that when class interests are opposed 
to human welfare they should cast their lot on 
the side of those who decide in favor of humanity 
and not with a class which seeks to profit at the 
expense of the larger group. The business man 
is asked to do what many others have already 
done, that is, to live for others rather than for 
himself and to refuse to make financial gain the 


THE NEW PROFESSION 229 


sole measure of success. The practical question 
which faces the modern business man is whether 
he will function in society as a Christian in his 
work. If he is not to fail, he must have a genuine 
appreciation of the principle beneath the judg- 
ments of Jesus concerning all our human rela- 
tions. 

If business cannot be raised to the rank of a 
profession, it will continue to debase the weaker 
members of the long-established professions. 
Business men know well enough that they can 
secure from any of the professions as many men 
to do their bidding as they desire. They are not 
so crude as to proclaim it from the housetops, 
but they have the assurance that they can pur- 
chase any following that they desire. It is the 
cynical conviction of many business men that 
the clergy will behave very nicely when any 
matter which concerns business interests is at 
stake. Any number of ministers can be secured 
whose messages are well adjusted to satisfy the 
demands of their business layman. It must 
grieve our Lord that so vigorous and searching 
and constructive a thing as his gospel should 
become as flaccid and vacuous as it does in many 
a modern pulpit. Clergymen themselves say, 
“What can we do?” in a sort of apology for the 


230 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


lack of courage to follow Christ. Business men 
know that teachers can be employed who will 
be the parrot-like reciters of any economic creed 
that they may advance. It is common knowl- 
edge that law has fallen largely to the level of 
average business ‘practice. Throughout profes- 
sional life, there is the trail of the serpent of an 
unworthy commercialism. 

If the prostitution of the professions is to be 
remedied the cause will have to be uprooted. 
Shall the professions be commercialized? Shall 
such men cease to serve humanity and work only 
for profit? The better men in the professions 
never have commercialized their work. The hope 
of the future is to make a profession out of busi- 
ness. This is the greatest single undertaking of 
this day. The forces of labor and capital keep 
the economic issues forward. The public will 
not let economic problems remain undisturbed. 
Shall the teaching of Jesus and our social interest 
which is economic in character, come together 
to produce the most important fusion of religion 
and culture ever consummated in the history of 
the world? 

This is the most urgent question of this day. 
How are the vast economic forces of our com- 
monwealth to be handled? How are they to be 


THE NEW PROFESSION 231 


codrdinated to promote human welfare? Not to 
take a religious interest in economic problems is 
to fail at the point of the most vital and far- 
reaching interest of this age. It may be said 
that only one other hour in the history of man 
was fraught with equal interest. That was when 
his Son lived in our midst. This hour has thrust 
forward the most far-reaching program of any 
age for the promotion of human welfare in the 
correlation of religion and business. The key 
to the situation is a business man who will do 
what he believes Christ would have him do. The 
next key is the next business man who will do 
the same thing. There never will be any other 
key. Groups follow leaders in the beginnings of 
any great movement. Then the ideals and prac- 
tices of such men become common property. 
Christ can build an economic order worthy of 
himself only by building on the first business 
men who feel the imperative necessity of using 
their business as a means of uniting religious 
and economic interests. We are not so com- 
placent about our excellencies as was the former 
generation. The shadow of the Great War is 
still over us. A desire for commercial supremacy 
helped to bring it about and the proceedings at 
the peace conference following the war showed 


232 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


that commercial considerations were still of 
primary importance. We can Christianize busi- 
ness, or we can prepare for another war to which 
the horrors of the last war will not be com- 
parable. 

i 

The modern business man finds himself in a 
stratified society in which men are linked 
together in groups for the purpose of self-defense 
and the promotion of their mutual welfare. In 
addition, there is the depressing fact that many 
business men are pirates in modern society, con- 
trolled in their business relations by the ethics 
of a semipagan civilization. They are members 
of a group against which other groups are ar- 
rayed with their loyalties. This opposition 
frequently amounts to hate. At the same time, 
the buccaneers of modern trade are running wild 
through all the groups. 

After all, is not the corporation in itself a 
number of codperating units? Moreover, what 
is a trust in itself but a combination of coédperat- 
ing corporations? The most significant phase of 
modern business life is the fact that the many 
ramifications in consolidation which have taken 
place now offer unprecedented opportunity for 
the practice of the Christian religion. A public 


THE NEW PROFESSION poo 


conscience yet remains to be created relating 
these larger groups which are frequently at war 
with one another. That we have come so far in 
codperation is very suggestive of what may be 
reasonably hoped for with regard to the larger 
groups in their relation to one another. 

The present content of the psychology of the 
group as it now dominates group activities will 
have to be reconstructed by modern Christian 
business men. The interests of this age are those 
of groups. The Christian man of to-day should 
be able to think of the problems of the group to 
which he belongs in terms of the teaching of 
Jesus. This means that he must have appre- 
ciated the principles which Jesus enunciated in 
order that he may be able to relate his group 
problems to them. It takes intelligence and 
effort to maintain a worthy home. Yet the 
family is a small group bound together by love. 
In the larger group relations, it will require 
knowledge of the facts, clearness of thought, and 
earnestness of purpose to perceive what the 
principles of Jesus mean in these relations. Be- 
cause many of the interests of modern life are 
those of groups rather than those of individual 
interests as they were in the days of Jesus, it is 
now absolutely necessary for men to live in the 


234. SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


light of principles with their applications to 
modern life if the teaching of Jesus is to affect 
this and coming ages. The principle of his teach- 
ing concerning our human relations is simplicity 
itself; that is, the welfare of all and not that of 
a particular class: should be the objective of all 
sroup and individual activities. There are suffi- 
cient Christian forces in any group to compel it 
to respect the principle which Jesus taught. The 
interests of modern life are so closely connected 
with group activities that the Christian man who 
will not strive valiantly to view his group inter- 
ests in their relation to the whole community 
cannot hope to do the largest possible service for 
his Lord. It will take heroism to put the teach- 
ing of Jesus into practice within these great 
group interests. 

Louis B. Brandies had shown before he became 
a member of the Supreme Court that no really 
conspicuous American trust owed its success to 
superior efficiency only, but also to its ability to 
control the market and thereby to increase its 
profit. Such organizations have been moral out- 
laws, for they have placed their group interests 
before those of the commonwealth and have 
taken toll because they had the power. There 
never has been a time when any group has had 


THE NEW PROFESSION 235 


the moral right to sacrifice society in order to 
promote its own welfare and there never will be 
a time in the future when such will be the case. 
Boards of directors of great corporations are 
responsible for the manner in which they con- 
duct their business. When the well-being of all 
is sacrificed for the sake of a favored few, the 
latter are in open warfare with society. If they 
Jack the manhood to make an honest effort to 
act in terms of public welfare, they may have 
the outward form of religion but its inner con- 
structive spirit is still untried and impotent in 
their public relations. Employers need to grap- 
ple with those of their own class in order that 
they may lead in the great movements of social 
reconstruction. Human welfare rather than 
profit must become the slogan of the new in- 
dustrialism. Labor unions will need to clear 
their houses of the radicals who seek to promote 
class warfare and class hate. It is common 
knowledge that in many cities the more law- 
abiding members of labor unions are intimidated 
by those who use violence to control the unions. 
The obvious duty of any member of a labor 
union is to make that union function in terms of 
the welfare of the whole community. Some may 
have to get hurt and suffer loss to bring it about, 


236 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


but that may happen to any man who tries to 
make the world better by promoting the welfare 
of his group. Business men can take their choice. 
They can reform their own groups, making the 
sacrifice necessary to make these groups the 
servants of society; or they can betray their 
trust and refuse to plan and sacrifice in order to 
make a better world. There is now sufficient 
general intelligence and spiritual insight to judge 
with a fair degree of accuracy of the worth to 
society of any prominent business man. 

Our international relations are increasingly 
economic in character. Business men who refuse 
to act in terms of public welfare are the real 
creators of future wars. There is a passion for - 
peace in the world to-day. It can become a 
reality only as business men apply the teaching 
of Jesus in their business relations. The common 
people throughout the world are weary of being 
plunged into war for business advantages. Men 
of means have it in their power to allay this deep 
resentment of the average man toward economic 
greed as a cause of war. 


Ill 


A survey of the forms which social life has as- 
sumed will quickly reveal that in many ways the 


~ THE NEW PROFESSION 237 


modern business man is confronted with prob- 
lems which, in outward form at least, differ 
widely from those met by the workers of Jesus’ 
day. ‘The newspaper is the product of a com- 
paratively recent period. There are no detailed 
instructions given in the New Testament by 
which a newspaper may be conducted. On no 
page of the Bible is there a specific program by 
which an insurance company might be directed. 
The present elaborate educational system which 
trains for entrance into almost all walks of life 
and at the same time is not controlled directly 
by the Church is unlike anything in Palestine in 
A. D. 30. Child and adult hospitals, the pro- 
ducts of a developed medical science, and our 
more sympathetic social conscience were then 
unknown. Centralized industry with its multi- 
plicity of problems and its disadvantages as well 
as its advantages could not have been antici- 
pated in their most fanciful dreams. The family 
felt no necessity of a restatement of the rights 
of woman and the privileges which she should 
enjoy. Only in our day is the glamour fading 
from the kings of earth and the word “‘monarch”’ 
rapidly becoming obsolete. In the day of our 
Lord the highest obligations of a subject were 
formulated in terms of obedience to a king. 


238 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


However, the broad principles of the teaching 
of Jesus are as valid now as when he gave them. 
But the man who will not think in terms of 
principles will accomplish little in human better- 
ment. Jesus left principles which, because they 
are such, have a way of leaping over the out- 
ward changes that have occurred and of furnish- 
ing guidance for us in our present problems, so 
that our readjustments may still be in harmony 
with his essential spirit. Principles in them- 
selves are wonderfully flexible in their applica- 
tions, but they easily become prisoned in some 
customary form of interpretation which may 
have ceased to be tolerated or even desired. 
Life has a most unexpected manner of assuming 
new forms when repressed or restrained by out- 
sTrown conventions. 


IV 

A home of culture would find difficulty in for- 
mulating a definite set of rules which would be 
descriptive of its life. The lives of the inmates 
are controlled in part by habits, the reasons for 
which may not have become explicit, by senti- 
ments for which there are no clearly formulated 
reasons, by customs and traditions and the 
loosely organized beliefs of those who have re- 


THE NEW PROFESSION 239 


gard for the finer things of life. There is an 
atmosphere in such a home which is felt more 
than analyzed and which might be summarized 
by saying, “The spirit of the home is one of 
culture.’ To many people, to speak of the spirit 
of a person or of a group is to mention something 
which is indefinite, intangible, and altogether 
unreal. In point of fact, the spirit may furnish 
one of the most exacting tests that can be em- 
ployed to value the facts of life. 

Every day in any home a multitude of deci- 
sions must be made which are submitted to the 
test of whether or not they are in harmony with 
a wholesome and attractive family life. The 
spirit of culture not only furnishes a flexible 
guide for conduct but it may be exacting in its 
demand, ofttimes regulating in a most detailed 
way the particulars of daily life. There may be 
no visible or even thought-out rules in such a 
home. The details of finished living are woven 
together in such intricate patterns that it may 
not be possible to state in particular instances 
just what they all may be and to indicate the 
relations which they sustain to one another. 
Yet this lack of analysis in no way hinders that 
finished consideration for others which is the 
mark of a truly cultured member of society. 


240 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


A like application of the flexibility of the spirit 
and the exactness of the guidance which it fur- 
nishes for conduct may be discovered in any well- 
established business. The house or the factory 
comes to maintain certain business standards 
which are consciously or unconsciously applied 
in the routine of business practice. Here again, 
it may be that the spirit controls rather than the 
letter, for if the members of the firm were asked 
to state in detail just the elements which entered 
into a particular decision, perhaps it could not 
be done. But that does not mean that their 
judgment has not been both exacting and yet 
flexible in the demands it has made for a worthy 
business practice consistent with the spirit of the 
house. The daily life of upright business men 
is controlled by the spirit of their business rather 
than by a set of standards which they are able 
to state in any very concrete way. To the 
literalist this means the loosening of all moral 
restraints and a most careless and unworthy way 
of determining conduct. But the one who has 
tried to live after the Spirit amid the swiftly 
changing circumstances of life has found the 
demands of such a life infinitely exacting; and 
and at the same time he has had that flexible 
guidance which he so much craved. Jesus could 


THE NEW PROFESSION 241 


assemble the facts in any social situation and 
make a decision which was for the welfare of 
men. The modern business man must win the 
same spiritual independence. He must think 
fearlessly in the light of all of the facts, 
seeking the welfare of his fellow men, and 
then he must act on his convictions, beliey- 
ing that is what Jesus would do, and so, is 
what Jesus would have him do. 


V 


Business men should relegate philanthropy to 
a place of secondary importance and emphasize 
the payment of wages and taxes. It is obvious, 
to even a careless observer, that colleges, hos- 
pitals, playgrounds, art galleries, and libraries, 
when constructed by philanthropic gifts from 
men who have made vast fortunes in business, 
are largely a transfer of wages from the men who 
did the work to the public as gifts. Philan- 
thropy should be a minor test of business worth 
and usefulness. The payment of taxes is a re- 
ligious obligation taking precedence over gifts 
to promote worthy enterprises. We live under 
a government in which many reformers have 
labored. The reforms which they advocated are 
now viewed as rights and are embodied in laws. 


242 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


Taxes maintain these rights. If all the private 
schools were discontinued, the state schools 
could do the work of education. City hospitals 
care for the sick. Public parks are open to all for 
recreation. Every great reform movement finally 
gets itself embodied into law. Hence, the 
createst promoters of our most cherished privi- 
leges are those who pay taxes. It would be a 
healthy spiritual practice for each business 
man to review his practice with regard to 
the payment of taxes during the last five 
years. This would be one way among others 
in which to make a test of his piety and 
public spirit. 

Another test of the worth of a business man is 
whether he develops manhood in himself and 
promotes it in others in their relations with him. 
An employer should want his employees to re- 
spect themselves and to respect him only when he 
is right. Does a business man expect those less 
fortunate than himself to be servile in his pres- 
ence? Does he in turn fawn before those more 
successful than himself? Can he meet every man 
without servility or ostentation? The high re- 
gard of his various business associates is one of 
the finest compliments any business man can 
receive. 


THE NEW PROFESSION 243 


VI 


The Christian business man must solve the 
problem of the relation between his religion and 
his business in a competitive system. In almost 
all business transactions men acting upon the 
basis of competition, which is recognized by the 
law of the land as our present platform of trade, 
struggle to secure positions in the business world. 

The spirit of Christ will enable a man to orient 
himself in the business of the world. The intri- 
cate and complex machinery of business as ma- 
chinery, including shipping, banking, and adver- 
tising, is not in itself opposed to the Christian 
life. What is needed is a new view of the task in 
hand and a recognition that all legitimate busi- 
ness offers the opportunity for service. ‘The 
spirit of loving service was the spirit of Jesus. 
The outward circumstances of his life varied 
greatly from those of the modern world, but the 
same attitude toward the facts of life may be 
maintained by the business man. In fact, Jesus’ 
view of life must be the possession of the modern 
Christian, or he has ceased to serve the Christ 
and is living by something more vital to himself 
than the stewardship to which he was appointed 
by God. 


There are sufficient incentives in the spirit of 


244 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


service to cause a man to train himself for busi- 
ness. Skill in one’s calling is only efficiency in 
accomplishing the tasks at hand, and should be 
sought as a means to the end. The prestige 
which accompanies success may only enlarge the 
possibility of usefulness. When reputation is 
viewed as an asset to service, it is shorn of that 
vulgarity of personal display which often is so 
marked in the arrogant rich or the near rich who 
are overimpressed with the fact that they are 
self-made men. In the presence of a crude self- 
assertion on the part of the successful, it may be 
admitted that they are self-made and that their 
contention is largely true. The humility worn 
by those who use success and honor as means 
further to extend some worth-while endeavor, in 
the consciousness that they have been prospered 
in former undertakings, is a fitting apparel with 
which to be spiritually garbed at any time. 
There is a comradeship in the ranks of those who 
serve their fellows in business. The severest 
testing of character among business men is, how 
do they respond to trust bestowed on them in 
financial matters? There is a wealth of fine 
character in those who react to such confidence 
with justice and equity in all transactions. There 
is a comradeship of moral life which has been 


THE NEW PROFESSION 245 


refined and tried in a furnace of pure gold when 
those who are sensitive to moral values dis- 
charge their obligations with a scrupulous regard 
for standards of truth and honor. Such men are 
brought near to Christ, with his passion for moral 
integrity and faithfulness to moral obligations. 

Whenever a man serves in the business world, 
his first problem is to remain there and, by the 
introduction of a new spirit rather than any out- 
ward readjustments, to transform his business 
into a highly organized and aggressive instru- 
ment of service. Restless inquisitiveness and 
thoroughly matured foresight, united with unre- 
mitting effort to produce results, are values to be 
secured to the Kingdom of God through a vital 
union of religion and business. The highly 
trained skill of business may be viewed as re- 
ligious skill; too long, acquiescence and surrender 
have been held as the distinctive traits of the 
religious life. 

It is to be admitted that a high regard for fair 
dealing may frequently demand sacrifice. No 
worthy cause can be served without the payment 
of the price that goes with devotion to furthering 
its interests. There is a common bond of 
sympathy and regard which binds together men 
who have met temporary or even serious re- 


246 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


verses for the sake of fair dealing. The words of 
an ex-mayor of Philadelphia and president of a 
great’ belt works are significant in this connec- 
tion. He said, in substance, that after fifty 
years in business he had noted that all those who 
had not been strictly honorable in all their busi- 
ness dealings had dropped out. There is a close 
connection between spirituality, in the sense of 
sterling morality, and strict business integrity. 
The sacrifices of war are counted as a privilege, 
and those of business may be viewed in the 
same way if permeated with the same heroic 
spirit. 

Throughout the teaching of Jesus there is a 
clear impression of the necessity of self-sacrifice. 
He desired no follower who had not the sacri- 
ficial spirit. He winnowed those who professed 
allegiance to him, retaining in his service those 
who had the fortitude to complete the task which 
he outlined for them. His life was one long story 
of the price which is exacted of those who try to 
make the world better. Many business men 
think it highly commendatory that professional 
men should exemplify the sacrificial spirit, with- 
out the remotest idea that exactly the same 
obligation rests upon them. It is one thing to 
approve of sacrifice in others; it is quite another 


THE NEW PROFESSION 247 





matter to make the sacrifice yourself. Men in 
the professions are moving the world forward 
because they deny themselves the privilege 
which they feel that they otherwise would have 
aright to enjoy. They serve causes which they 
know to be worthy of their finest endeavors. As 
long as professional men are convinced that 
sacrifice is necessary for the promotion of human 
welfare, they will continue in their callings, pay- 
ing the price exacted by work which is indispen- 
sable to society. 

The sacrifice of adults comes from no glow of 
youthful enthusiasm. It is the deliberate convic- 
tion of such men that sacrifice is a social neces- 
sity. It is no longer simply a personal matter. 
In the stream of the life of the world, each 
generation dies that another may live. This 
knowledge, as nothing else, takes the sting and 
the bitterness out of sacrifice. Men need the 
steadying power of a cosmic view of the necessity 
of sacrifice if they are to persevere in such a 
manner of life. We might not have arranged our 
universe in its present fashion had it been of our 
own ordering. It was here long before we came 
on the stage of action and will remain after we 
are gone. A great liberation occurs in the life 
which comes under the yoke of sacrifice and sees 


248 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


itself as a part of a cosmic process, including both 
nature and human life. 

Business men are asked to accept this law of 
life as their own because business itself is worthy 
of a sacrifice that will lift it to the level where its 
ideal is the service of humanity. When business 
is seen in this light the greatest revival of all 
history will be here. The redemptive movement 
of society will have shifted its center to business, 
which will then be the greatest single agent for 
producing manhood in all who labor and do the 
work of the world. God will dwell with men in 
business itself and not simply in enterprises sup- 
ported by its gifts. Just the same type of sacrifice 
and faith as is being exemplified by the more 
worthy professional men will redeem business, 
and the profound insight of Jesus concerning 
the necessity of sacrifice will then be understood 
as binding upon all men. 

Many were the nights Jesus spent with his 
disciples under the clear Syrian sky where each 
star glowed like a soft, warm lamp. Dusty and 
travel-worn, they would gaze at the glorious 
stars, and their messages of permanence and 
peace would be borne to them. One in the 
company was such a soul that He could tighten 
his sandals and walk the pavement of stars. 


THE NEW PROFESSION 249 


Business may curse men, destroying the soul, or 
it may furnish the sandals by which they may 
tread a pavement of suns. 


Vil 


Since business includes in its scope the activi- 
ties of an innumerable multitude having endless 
varieties of standards of conduct, it is not sur- 
prising that the same uniformity of practice is 
not to be discovered in it as in the learned pro- 
fessions. It includes within its activities the 
mass of mankind. Where the whole of society 
is engaged in an activity such as business, that 
activity will possess as many faults as the 
blemishes discoverable on that society. The in- 
fluence of numerous ignorant, immoral, and 
practically criminal persons will lower the tone 
of the whole group. There is an undertow in 
business practice with its evasion, concealment, 
trickery, and fraud. Those who enter business 
with high ideals of service are forced to be con- 
stantly on their guard because of those unworthy 
of confidence with whom they have to deal, lest 
they be defrauded and perhaps made bankrupt 
by their associates. This is particularly true 
when the merchant may be failing or only 
partially successful. 


250 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


But the greater danger lies in the silent, but 
none the less powerful, appeal which low stand- 
ards of business make to men. Slowly, worthy | 
ideals of conduct are surrendered because viewed 
as impracticable, and the rapacious, cunning, 
and brutal practices of associates are adopted 
and made one’s own. The bulk of these men who 
fail in the moral life slip first in their business 
practices. What part have they with Christ? 
They have defrauded widows, betrayed the. 
trusting, made themselves enemies of mankind, 
and so lived that in their hearts they know that 
they have no part in Christ’s life or Kingdom. 
The greatest single tragedy of American life, 
outside that of sex, is the surrender of its busi- 
ness men to standards of morality which are of 
the jungle, and which ruin character, because 
they are determined to be practical in securing 
results. 

Few appreciate the ability of the ceaseless 
pressure of public opinion to fashion their lives. 
A child is formed by its reactions to the influences 
about it. It acquires the manner of speech of its 
locality and its social and moral ideals are de- 
termined by its elders. The youth feels his way 
slowly to the prevailing ideals of his section of 
the country and unconsciously makes these 


_ THE NEW PROFESSION 251 


standards of conduct his own. So it is with the 
man of business. Out of his childhood he gradu- 
ally emerges into the business world. Its ideals 
are unwittingly made his own. He watches, with 
an exacting scrutiny, men who are judged suc- 
cessful, for he realizes that only as he appreciates 
their methods of business can he hope to win a 
like success. He is in the position where he gives 
ready assent to the practical guides which they 
use to determine conduct, with the result that 
the fine aspirations of early life are later regarded 
as foolish sentiments and the noble ideal of 
service is held to be the vagary of good but 
impracticable people. 

It is just here that the teaching of Jesus may 
be misinterpreted by the conscientious business 
man. He may feel that Jesus is hostile toward 
business because of his repeated warnings con- 
cerning the dangers of riches. The approach of 
Jesus to the problems of life is spiritual. It is 
easy to be ruled by conventional standards of 
success rather than to make the struggle to be a 
Christian in all human relations. The rewards 
of business success are tangible and immediate, 
while spiritual success, although no less real, can- 
not be so concrete. Jesus was-not hostile toward 
business, but he was zealous that no man should 


202 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


surrender the spiritual life and refuse to deter- 
mine his conduct by it. Warnings were needed 
in his day against the insidious and destructive 
temptation to turn from God and integrity and 
truth in order to gain success by sacrificing the 
welfare of other men. Our Saviour opposed the 
loss of manhood and spiritual sensitiveness. to 
the leadership of God through any unworthy 
practice. He struggled to keep the soul true to 
its spiritual birthright in order that it might be 
loyal to the best in all human relations. The 
warnings of Jesus concerning the dangers con- 
nected with wealth should be taken seriously as 
emphasis upon real dangers against which the 
Christian should guard himself with scrupulous 
care. 

It is an epoch-making experience when a busi- 
ness comes to be viewed as a Christian service; 
when the ingenuity of the worker is taxed to the 
utmost to extend the business that a larger circle 
of customers may be served; when the task that 
was once secular has become sacred because the 
Kingdom of God includes within itself all legiti- 
mate human interests. Then the religious life 
is most natural in its expression, for it offers 
constant and varying opportunities for loyalty 
in Christian service. The ordinary conception 


THE NEW PROFESSION 203 





of a part of life as religious and the rest as sepa- 
rate from all possibility of religious control must 
pass away. Rather, it will come to be held that 
unless all life can be lived in a religious manner, 
no part can truly be said to be thoroughly re- 
ligious. When religion is really seen to be a life, 
with all the natural divisions of work, play, and 
worship as only different aspects of its normal 
expression, then religion will have become fully 
appreciated. In his worship, the business man 
may obtain that perspective which will enable 
him to discern that the main chance offered to 
him by business is that of a Christian service. 
In his worship and play there is refreshment and 
release from care. With mind serene and clear, 
and energies renewed, he can return to his task 
with eagerness and zest to render a better service 
than ever before. Instead of religion’s becoming 
a handicap to a business man, it is found to be 
one of his greatest sources of strength, fortifying 
his integrity, cheering him in his despondency, 
comforting him in his reverses, and holding him 
faithful to the spiritual citizenship which is his 
as a servant of Christ. 

Thus, the varied and rich talents of mankind 
developed in the business world may be brought 
into the service of Christ. The merchant may 


254 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick, 
shelter the unprotected, and provide those beau- 
ties and comforts which make for satisfaction 
and gladness, not simply that he may gain more 
but also that he may serve better. One of the 
finest business sentiments ever uttered was that 
of Jesus when he said that the man who saves his 
life loses it and the man who loses his life saves it. 
It is cast in terms of the market, in the figure of 
profit and loss. It is one of the fundamental laws 
of life that the person who serves becomes secure 
in his own soul and that the one controlled by 
erasping greed becomes dwarfed in the inner life. 


VIII 


The form of business has changed rapidly in 
the last fifty years. Where once the employer 
hired but a few men, now many thousands may 
be under his control. The centralization of 
industry has created captains of business who 
hold in their hands unprecedented power. When 
the employer was in personal touch with his men, 
the human element was not lacking but it was 
that very element which was often too pro- 
nounced. The workman was subject to the 
temper and caprice of his employer. He might 
be discharged for many incidental reasons. He 


THE NEW PROFESSION 255 


could not be sure of his position, for the small 
merchant, because of his limited capital, had to 
save closely in hard times, could not make far- 
reaching plans for his business which involved 
the uninterrupted expenditure of money, could 
give no assurance of a material increase in salary 
because of experience obtained in the business, 
and could almost utterly disregard the demands 
of an employee for better wages. With the en- 
largement of business, the employee is treated 
much more consistently on the basis of merit 
and the way is opened for almost unlimited 
advancement. As a member of a labor organiza- 
tion he may state a grievance, be heard respect- 
fully, and receive a recognition not possible under 
the old system. 

To be a member of a great business concern 
makes for social solidarity in a way in which the 
accentuated individualism of limited business 
could not, for the worker can sense his place in a 
concern of national, or even world importance, 
and his life thereby becomes connected with 
national and international interests. In sacrific- 
ing in some measure the personal touch, it may 
be that a finer and better relation has been won. 
Anyway, it does not necessarily follow that the 
personal element must be lacking when the busi- 


256 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


ness is large, although such is generally the case. 
Swift recognition of talent and full pay for honest 
work with consideration of the workmen in the 
light of the totality of their obligations will make 
for a much more desirable business life in the 
future than the past has ever known. 

Among others, there are two opposite tenden- 
cies in modern trade that are worthy of consider- 
ation: either business purifies itself as it in- 
creases in size; or unparalleled wrongs are 
committed because of the power resident in the 
few who are in control of great combinations of 
capital. In a pointed and constructive letter 
written by the president of a great locomotive 
works, he has enlarged upon the impulse within 
a growing business to purify itself and he has 
stated the Christian view of business with clear- 
ness when he says: “ Business is an exchange of 
service. Regarded from this point of view, 
anything savoring of trickery or sharp practice 
is not legitimate business but fraud. The larger 
the business, the more necessary it is to conduct 
it upon the principle of exchange of service. 
Practices contrary to the teachings of Jesus 
Christ can readily be carried out by an unprin- 
cipled busmess man having a few employees, 
which would be impracticable in a great organi- 


THE NEW PROFESSION 207 


zation having many thousands, because what is 
known to so many must be susceptible to the 
closest scrutiny. The principle of service is the 
principle of the Golden Rule. The Golden Rule 
epitomizes the teachings of Jesus Christ. I con- 
ceive that there is no necessary conflict whatever 
between the problems of business and the teach- 
ings of Jesus. The business man who honestly 
prays: ‘Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in 
earth, as it is in heaven,’ must necessarily carry 
into his business the effort to bring about the 
extension of the Kingdom of God on earth. In 
endeavoring so to extend the Kingdom of God, 
it is natural and necessary to endeavor to per- 
form the greatest service for one’s fellow men. 
There is no broader instrumentality for doing 
this than through the organization of business.” 
The detrimental tendency in business is shown 
by the investigations made by our Government 
into the workings of many of our most gigantic 
corporations and is a sufficient commentary on 
the dangers inherent in great combination of 
capital. 

To have the direction of the interests of many 
lives is to be conscious of possessing great 
authority. A Roman centurion had a servant 
very dear to him who was near to death. When 


258 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


he had exhausted all the means of recovery 
known to him, he tactfully sent Jews whom he 
had befriended to Christ that they might inter- 
cede for him on behalf of his servant with the 
hope that Christ would heal him. When it was 
evident that Jesus was near, this Government 
official requested these chosen friends to speak 
to Jesus, indicating that he was unworthy to 
have Christ within his house and that if Jesus 
would only speak the words, his servant would 
be made whole. The centurion recognized the 
authority of Christ. He was the more able to 
appreciate it because he himself possessed 
authority from the Government and daily exer- 
cised it. There was this tie between the Saviour 
and the centurion which the army officer 
recognized. The business man who directs the 
activities of an army of business men can say to 
one, © Go,” and he goes, and to another, ““Come,”’ 
and he obeys. He can order regiments to ad- 
vance and they move forward, or he can com- 
mand an industrial retreat and they fall back. 
He may appreciate, as the average man cannot, 
what Jesus meant when he said, “All authority 
hath been given unto me in heaven and on 
earth.”” He possessed authority, not only on 
earth, with its age-long history and myriad 


THE NEW PROFESSION 259 


changes, but also in heaven, the thought of 
which is freighted with the hope of immortality 
and eternal blessedness. The one who has great 
authority on earth may draw nigh to Jesus 
Christ the Lord, who possesses all authority, and 
feel the kinship of great power. When human 
authority presses into the presence of Christ, 
then there comes to it the recognition that no 
matter how great the power any man may 
possess, he has received it from the Saviour and 
is responsible to him for the way in which it is 
exercised. It is natural for men of great affairs 
to be reverent, for the magnitude of their affairs 
often forces them to consider the Source of their 
authority and the best ways of meeting their 
responsibilities. 

It would be only natural that those having 
sreat wealth should be influenced first by the 
conventional conceptions of charity and philan- 
thropy. Historically, the earliest expressions 
of the religious life take the form of gifts to 
better the conditions of others. But now it 
would be hard to conceive of any great business 
only as a means of securing profits which might 
be used as gifts for the benefit of those not suc- 
cessful in financial undertakings. Business has 
worth in itself, and as this becomes clearly 


260 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


recognized, better wages and the payment of 
taxes will take the place of gifts to causes only 
indirectly connected with the business. Then 
the business itself will become an immediate 
means of service to God and business responsi- 
bility will be viewed as a direct religious obliga- 
tion. Business authority, like any other form of 
legitimate power, is from God and should be so 
used by those possessing It. 

It used to be that practically all business was 
quite limited. When an article was purchased, 
the one who bought it could immediately com- 
municate with the maker of the product. If it 
was not satisfactory the manufacturer could be 
told to his face that he had practiced fraud. This 
direct disapproval of the purchaser was a strong 
incentive toward fair dealing. The merchant at 
once felt the approval or disapprobation of the 
customer. Adverse public sentiment might be 
quickly created against him because of any un- 
fairness, even in a very small matter. With the 
development of modern business all this is 
changed. The manager of a great business may 
never see the customers. Their only connection 
with him may be that they use his products. 
They may speak all the languages of the world 
and dwell in its remotest corners. There may 


THE NEW PROFESSION 261 


be no sympathy of a common racial inheritance, 
no restraint of common religious ties and no 
presence of a united public opinion to modify his 
conduct. He is left to deal with people in an 
impersonal way in relations which, by their 
nature, are impersonal. What if strangers are 
made unhealthy by adulterated food, what if 
men are killed because of a defective casting, 
what if miners die like rats in a trap because the 
supports in the mines have been neglected, what 
if women waste away in uncongenial employ- 
ment, what if little children are dwarfed and old 
before their time? It requires a truly great man 
to control a large business in our day and to deal 
with customers and employees with justice and 
kindness. He needs the perspective of Jesus 
which was his because of the world vision which 
he possessed. The business man should be able 
to deal honorably with a man whom he may 
never see, whose language he may not under- 
stand, and whose ideals may even be repugnant 
to him. And this is no idle demand. In the 
employ of a single company may be men of every 
nationality and the customers of the company 
may be from the nations of the world. How can 
the manager treat his customers with fairness 
unless he has the world vision of Jesus himself? 


262 SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


His ideal of brotherhood is needed by men of 
large affairs that they may be able to be essen- 
tially just. Half the markets of the world were 
closed but yesterday to Americans because they 
could not rise to a conception of the worth of 
those who do not speak their language and whose 
social and religious customs differ widely from 
their own. There is a balance in judgment which 
is the possession only of the capable business 
man who has Christ’s world-wide vision of human 
life. Increasingly, the need of this broader view 
of life is making itself felt. 

With the expansion of business there is an 
increasing demand for men who can direct large 
affairs. They are difficult to find. The intellec- 
- tual acumen required is rare, and the sterling 
moral worth which is the slow growth of years of 
right living is often not attained. No better 
investment of life on the part of men equipped 
to control big business can be made than to sub- 
mit to Christ and then aggressively to achieve 
Christian character. The tests of business are as 
frequently moral as any other. Only in religion 
can that substantial morality necessary for abso- 
lute integrity in all business affairs be fully de- 
veloped. The true Christian increases in moral 
power with advancing years. As more important 


THE NEW PROFESSION 263 


trust is imposed on him with the development of 
the business, the growing Christian is able to 
meet this larger responsibility. Never as in the 
present has business offered so many opportuni- 
ties to alert Christian business men, and the near 
future will increase the possibilities of advance- 
ment manifold. 
IX 

Many women are in business of necessity. 
They are forced to support themselves or others. 
The necessity of laboring for food and shelter is 
the only justification such women need for being 
in business. The right of life is the oldest and 
most fundamental of all human rights. When 
life is at stake, then who would say that women 
should not have the right to labor that they may 
sustain life? Women stream into factories 
stores, offices, and schools, doing a large share of 
the work of the business world. Here they face 
a multitude of new problems which were not 
theirs before. In ancient days the trusty sword 
of the male members of her family commanded 
respect for a woman. Now they, like herself, are 
scattered in industry and may have little knowl- 
edge of the conditions under which she works, 
and perhaps little interest. The employer com- 
mands her best strength. Her vitality is drained 


264. SEVEN PROFESSIONS 


in her working hours, for the demands of busi- 
ness are exacting. The finest Christian chivalry 
in our day is in the business house where her 
surroundings are made pleasant and sanitary,. 
where moderate hours are observed, and where 
those in authority do not use their power to lure 
her from the path of virtue. To the Saviour 
women were human and their souls were as 
valuable as those of men. He said little about 
the treatment of women, but the spirit of his life 
was such that he met them as those of equal 
importance with men, and he showed toward 
them that fine comradeship which was pure, 
wholesome, strong, and without condescension. 
None were in his presence without being made 
to feel the dignity of their own lives and the 
infinite value of their souls. Those who seek to 
live after the spirit find all the guidance neces- 
sary in the spirit of Christ’s life to furnish them 
with an elevated, soul-constructing, and satisfy- 
ing program of conduct toward women. Whether 
they know it or not, business women are coming 
to demand that the spirit of Christ shall be mani- 
fest toward them in their lives. Many of their 
struggles in this day are gropings after such a 
program of consideration and mutual regard 
rather than a one-sided service. 





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